Sun Kissed
by WinglessCrows
Summary: Upon arriving to a new island, the strawhats find that what they thought would be a relaxing break from their hectic lives would remain a distant dream, and it seems that this island is much more dangerous than first anticipated. Set immediately after Thriller Bark. ON HIATUS
1. Exploring the Unknown

**Hi there and welcome to my fic. A few things you can choose to read before going into the story.**

 **First of all: Upload schedule. I will upload a chapter every friday (let's all forget that today isn't a friday)**

 **Second: To everyone who has read another fic of mine called _Through the Eyes of a Cook,_ you might find some Easter Eggs hidden in future chapters**

 **That's it for notes, so enjoy reading!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece**

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~Exploring the unknown~

There was always a certain kind of excitement when the weather stabilized, because even if they couldn't see it yet, they all knew what it meant: An island was approaching. When Nami confirmed that this was indeed a stable climate created by a close by island and not one of the many tricks of the Grand Line, everyone reacted differently. Usopp and Chopper got really excited and started jumping and playing around wondering what kind of island they would be landing at. Zoro slowly awoke from his nap, but didn't move from his spot. He knew that entering an island's climate was a safe spot and that meant that possibilities of enemy attacks increased tenfold. Sanji started preparing lunch boxes, because there would exploring and that made people, especially Luffy, hungry. Franky made the Sunny ready to be hid away, because whether or not this island was inhabited, it was of the utmost importance that they kept their ship safe, especially if they were to explore the island and leave her unattended. Nami, Chopper and Robin all began preparing backpacks, because if there was a town they had shopping to do and if it was deserted they had research to do. Nami would draw a map, Robin would explore the island's history and Chopper would look for herbs and medicinal plants. Brook was just purely ecstatic. It had literally been 50 years since he had seen an island that was not Thriller Bark, and that had technically been a ship, so landing in a new place was sure to put him in good spirits and he shared this of excited mood of his through cheerful music.

Luffy himself ran to the figurehead, where he would be the first person to spot the new island and sure enough, within the next ten minutes:

"Island ahead!" He yelled at the top of his lungs and drew the attention of his crew. He ran back to deck and joined Usopp and Chopper in their excitement.

"Luffy!" Nami yelled to make sure Luffy heard her over the music and thrilled atmosphere, "Did you see what kind of island it was?"

"There was a lot of green!" Luffy yelled back. Nami just nodded and said something to Robin and Sanji who were standing beside her. After that Sanji disappeared into the kitchen, hopefully to make some delicious food, and the girls disappeared into their room.

It only took the Sunny half an hour to reach shore. It seemed like the island was a deserted one and they docked their ship on the east side of the island safely hidden away in the shadow of some rocky structure. There was a beach stretching as far as the eye could see, and Nami said that the whole island was most likely surrounded by endless beach and where the beach stopped the vast jungle began. Usually forests tend to start out with a thin layer of trees and then get thicker when you go further in, but this was not a regular forest. They would have to cut several vines and thick branches to just enter it, so there was really no telling what they would meet on the island. The crew also seemed unusually fearless, especially the trio consisting of Usopp, Nami and Chopper. It seemed that the recent events of Thriller Bark had toughened everyone up and a little mysterious jungle was not about to scare them as much as actual zombies. Luffy was quite proud of how far his little crew had gotten in such a short amount of time and smiled to himself as Usopp and Nami were showing their excitement for the new adventure.

They decided to let Zoro stay on the Sunny as he was the only one who didn't show any particular interest in the new island, but of course Luffy would be sure to drag him out tomorrow, or maybe tonight depending on what happened. So the crew set of into the jungle with no goal in mind other than having fun. Brook was leading the party as he had a sword and could cut them a path. Luffy was walking right after him and they talked about adventures and sang songs about exploring. The others were following them closely so that no one would get lost. Franky had taken the rear and made sure to keep everyone in sight. They had only been walking for ten minutes when they came to a small pond, where the trees thinned out and sunlight escaped through some of the branches to create small rays of light. The place looked almost like it was taken straight of a fairy tale with the way the light seemed to dance among the trees and the reflections from the pond made it seem like the place had a life of its own.

"Pretty..." Nami exhaled and they all just took a moment to appreciate the sight before them.

Afterwards they all just scattered around the area. Luffy sat down beside the pond, took off his sandals and put his feet in the water. Sometimes he was sad that he couldn't swim. Even though he felt himself getting a little weaker just by submerging himself from feet to knees, he still enjoyed the feeling of the water gently caressing his skin and cooling him down during a hot day like this was. However, if he had the choice between being able to swim and having his rubber abilities, he would choose the ability every time. Not only was it a fun ability, but when used correctly it could be a powerful weapon. Luffy still thought that he ways to go before he had fully explored the extent of his devil fruit, but that was all in good fun and as long as he could improve he could become stronger.

As Luffy sat by the pond, he looked around at his crew. They were all fully absorbed in their own thing and Luffy was glad to have found such passionate people to join him. Nami was sketching for her map. Luffy didn't know the details of mapping out an island, but he knew that it took a lot of sketches, so Nami always carried as much paper as her bag could contain whenever they arrived at a new island. Robin was examining some flowers close to Luffy. The flowers she was currently looking at were bright purple and bigger than Luffy's hand. After a while Robin decided that this flower would do well in her garden and dug it up with the roots and everything. She then activated her power and carried the plant off to the Sunny. They were still within a short enough distance from the Sunny for her ability to reach all the way there, which excited Luffy since that meant they still had so much to explore. Franky was inspecting the durability of the vines and trees growing around them and was muttering something to himself. Luffy couldn't catch everything that he was saying, but he was sure that it was for the ship. Brook had sprawled himself on a patch of grass in the light of the sun, which he so enjoyed and was humming a song Luffy couldn't recognize. Usopp and Chopper were gathering herbs of all sorts, while Usopp was telling Chopper about their events on Little Garden, as this island looked a lot like it, just without the dinosaurs... but they could still make an appearance. Sanji was gathering food, which meant that tonight's banquet would have new interesting dishes. Luffy couldn't wait! Sanji's food was the absolute best.

As the strawhats settled peacefully by the small pond, animals started to arrive. They had possibly been scared away, when Brook had cut through the trees to get the crew forward, but now they were returning. First came the birds who joined in on Brook's song and they connected in perfect harmony. Second came the reptiles, friendly snakes slithered around them and hung themselves among the vines, while geckos and frogs made their way to the sunlit areas. Luffy was especially captivated by a yellow snake close to him. It was a bit smaller than the others, but shone brightly in the sun. Last came the gigantic turtles. The first one slowly popped up beside Luffy, sipped some water from the pond and settled quietly beside him. It's legs were as thick as Luffy's head, it appeared to be longer than him if he were to lay down beside it and its shell was big enough for at least three people of Luffy's size to ride it. All in all the thing was a whole lot bigger than Luffy was. The first turtle was soon followed by another three and Luffy noticed that all their shells had scratches on them, but they all just settled around Luffy who decided not to think to much about it and laughed as he climbed on top off one of them. When he sat down, the turtle began moving around and Luffy giggled childishly as the turtle took him for slow ride. It wandered a bit around the pond, but then set off into the jungle. Luffy decided just to stay where he was and he heard Nami yell after him:

"Be back before sunset!" And he just gave an affirmative thumbs up as he let the turtle lead him wherever it wanted.

They walked for a good amount of time, Luffy wasn't sure how long, but it had, at the very least, been two hours. As a survivor and a glutton, Luffy knew how to make it in a jungle where everything was potentially poison, so he ate only what he caught other mammals eating, as that was always a good indicator of what was safe and what was not. Luffy might not be the brightest on the crew, but he had experience with being thrown into strange, unknown forests without food for a considerable amount of time. Luffy was currently eating a weird fruit that tasted a bit like caramel and he made sure to save some for Chopper, because he would definitely like this. Luffy then noticed that not only were the trees thinning out, but they seemed to be going uphill. Luffy looked back and slowly the jungle came into view. It almost looked like a green blanket had been put on the island. It perfectly covered everything, except for a small area on the north of the island, where there was a clearing big enough for a small village. Luffy decided to let that piece of information be known to the rest of the crew whenever he got back. If there was a village, the others would surely like to know. He made a mental note to bring it up during dinner.

By now they had almost reached the top of whatever they were climbing and Luffy caught sight of the Sunny and wondered if Zoro could see him. Of course, the Sunny looked like an ant from where Luffy was, so Luffy must have looked even smaller from Zoro's perspective, and he was probably sleeping anyway, so it didn't matter. Luffy almost fell when the turtle tipped over the edge and he instinctively held onto his hat. After having secured his hat Luffy looked up and found himself in a giant crater and it did not take a genius to figure out that he was currently standing in the mouth of a volcano. Luffy slit down from the turtle's back and began exploring. It was a surprisingly fertile land and all over there were plants and animals nesting, but what really caught Luffy's attention was gigantic flower in the middle of the crater. It hadn't bloomed yet but each leaf was the size of the Sunny's main sail. It had no stalk, so Luffy could really really appreciate it in all its glory without accidentally ruining it by climbing on top of it. It was a bright blue flower and it glistened in the sun, just like the small yellow snake had. Luffy wasn't the only who was fascinated by the flower as it seemed that animals gathered around for no real reason.

As the colour of the sky began to change, Luffy decided that it would be best to get back to his crew, and he was sure that when he came back Sanji would be waiting with a delicious meal. Luffy figured that the fastest way to get back would be to rocket himself as far as he could get and then just walk the rest of the way, so he grabbed onto the edge of the crater and pulled himself as far back as he could. Now make no mistake, Luffy had a pretty good hold of how far his rocket could get him, and he had calculated that he would probably land a good five minute walk from the Sunny. But, and this was a big but, this would only have been the case if Luffy had not currently been well above ground level. So he rocketed himself towards the ant sized Sunny, watched as it continuously got bigger and watched as he just about missed it and landed in the waters behind it. The splash was loud and big, and though Luffy knew that he couldn't swim he still tried hard as he sank towards the bottom of the ocean. His vision was quickly blurring, but he did catch sight of the hand reaching for him just before he passed out.

 **҉**

Luffy woke up on a bed of warm, soft sand and decided that he was too comfortable to move, so he just settled for opening his eyes and looking around. Zoro was sitting beside him, trying to dry his now wet shirt, but after getting sand on it and messing it up even further, he just decided to give up on the shirt and looked to his now conscious captain.

"How come the first thing you do when you come back is throw yourself into the ocean? How did you even manage that?" Zoro asked acting annoyed.

"Minor miscalculation," Luffy answered smiling and Zoro let out a small laugh.

"You call flying to your death a minor miscalculation? I really don't want to see a major one then."

"I wasn't flying to my death," Luffy countered and put on a perfect pout.

"I am pretty sure jumping into water would qualify as flying to your death."

"No." Luffy said and smiled again, "Cause I know that you'll always save me."

Zoro smiled back, "Damn right."

They enjoyed a moment of peace, but then the wonderful smell reached Luffy and he shot up and looked to the source of it. Sanji had set up a mini kitchen on the beach and was grilling some sort of meat that made Luffy's mouth water. He turned to Zoro, pulled him along to join the others and the banquet started, as Luffy forgot to tell the others about the clearing he had discovered. The food was delicious, the music was lively and the spirit was high as the strawhats partied until it was almost time for the sun to rise once again.

 **҉**

The following day was even hotter than the previous and Nami explained that this summer island they had come upon was currently in between spring and summer, so it would only get hotter everyday. Yet no one really complained, because this place was a nice break from all of the eventful things that happened so regularly in their lives, and they could deal with a little heat in exchange for a holiday. Chopper of course was having it the worst, being from a winter island, having fur and all that, but he seemed to deal with the heat with the help of a special cooling device Franky had made for him.

Sanji, Nami and Robin had been the first ones up that morning and after Sanji had served the ladies their breakfast, they had apparently returned to the jungle to continue working on Nami's map. Sanji had then served the guys brunch when they woke around noon and the crew had just gone out to do their separate things. Soon Luffy found himself alone on the ship with only Sanji and Zoro. Sanji was experimenting with new ingredients in the kitchen, while Zoro was napping on deck, as usual. Luffy _had_ wanted to drag Zoro out into the jungle with him and maybe show him the volcano with its giant flower, but for now the heat was at its worst and it was making Luffy feel funny, so he decided to just join Zoro in his nap. He put his hat on Zoro, so that he could use his shoulder as a pillow and drifted off into a quiet sleep...

Luffy was half aware that he was awake and that Zoro was talking to him. He couldn't quite make out what exactly Zoro was saying, but he did catch the repeated mention of his name. Luffy wasn't sure if he wanted to ignore Zoro and go back to sleep, or wake up to find out what he was saying. It didn't sound too urgent, so Luffy decided on sleep. It didn't come as easily as it had the first time around, and soon enough Luffy heard Sanji's voice saying something and Zoro's voice saying something else. He then heard hurried foot steps and Sanji's voice became clearer than before. He too seemed to be repeatedly saying his name, so he decided to find out what was up and slowly opened his eyes. He had expected the sun to blind him, but Zoro had moved to keep his head in the shadows and Luffy looked directly at a worried Sanji.

"What...?" Luffy asked sleepily and he felt Zoro's hand on his face, which was somewhat weird and irregular.

"How are you feeling?" Sanji asked and Luffy was trying to find the reason behind Sanji's worry.

"'m fine, just tired..." Luffy said and kind of just wanted to go back to sleep, but Zoro moved and Luffy couldn't get comfortable again.

"Luffy, you're burning up. You have a fever," Zoro said and he too sounded more worried than Luffy felt there was reason for.

"It's just the heat..." Luffy said, but apparently none of them were having it and Zoro put him in his arms and began carrying him inside.

"Cook! Find Chopper." Zoro commanded and Luffy heard Sanji agree and found it weird that he so willingly accepted that Zoro gave him an order. Wouldn't they normally be fighting over something like that?

"I'm telling you, I''m fine..." Luffy said weakly. He was just so tired.

"I'll believe you if you can escape me," Zoro countered and made his way to the kitchen. So Luffy took the challenge and tried to get out of Zoro's grip, but he could hardly find the strength to move his limbs, let alone get free from a Zoro's strong arms. After weakly struggling for a minute Luffy admitted defeat and sighed.

Zoro took him to the Sick Bay where he put Luffy on the bed and covered him with a thin blanket, since it was too hot for the warm fluffy ones. He then proceeded to making Luffy drink plenty of water and when he couldn't possibly drink more, Zoro put a cool, wet towel on his forehead and told him to go back to sleep. Luffy would have told him to stop ordering him around had it not been for the fact that he was super sleepy and had no good reason to disobey.

 **҉**

Luffy woke up to the feeling of something cold on his arm and opened his eyes to see Chopper examining him and Zoro sitting by the foot of the bed, following Chopper's every move. There were also two silhouettes to his right, but Luffy couldn't see who exactly they were. He could only guess that it wasn't Brook as he caught sight of some flesh, but beyond that it could honestly have been anyone. Luffy's mind just wasn't clear enough to put anything together right now. Luffy then felt a small prick on his wrist and he immediately knew that Chopper was taking a blood test. He hadn't been awake for a long time, yet his body and mind were already feeling fuzzy and things that shouldn't be moving started moving, so Luffy decided to just close his eyes and listen closely to figure out what was going on.

"Can you cure him?" Zoro asked, his voice not masking his concern in the slightest, which Luffy did not like at all. One thing was for another crew mate to be worried about him, because that seemed to be almost a daily occurrence, but Zoro was only ever worried when he was literally on the brink of death, and even then he could manage to stay somewhat composed.

"I have to figure out what the illness is first, but most likely."

" _Most likely_ isn't very reassuring," Zoro said and Luffy could he hear that he was trying very hard to keep his voice low, confirming for him that they didn't know that he was awake.

"It's the best answer I can give," Chopper sounded a bit sad, but Luffy had faith in his doctor, even if he still wasn't a hundred percent convinced that he was, in fact, ill. Couldn't he just be sleepy? Very sleepy? All day...? Okay, when Luffy thought about it, it did sound suspiciously a lot like being ill and Zoro had said that he had a fever, and Zoro wouldn't lie. Not to Luffy at least.

"How long before we have a diagnosis?"

"Well, I need to test the blood, but if we're lucky, I should be done within the hour, and if not, then by nightfall at the latest."

"Okay..."

"Are you gonna stay?"

"Of course."

After their brief conversation silence followed, or at least, Luffy thought that silence followed, but he could be wrong. When there were no sounds to focus on, he just seemed to fall in and out of sleep until something happened that he could once again pay attention to.

He heard a collective pair of footsteps, someone opening a door and then saying something. Afterwards Luffy sensed that the room had gotten crowded and he wondered just how many people were in there. He still couldn't find the energy to open his eyes, so he once again settled for listening. The first voice he heard belonged to Usopp:

"How bad is it?" A short pause and Chopper answered:

"It's not too bad... for now, but if we don't treat him... he'll be dead within a week."

None of the newly arrived strawhats did anything to hide their surprised and horrified outbursts.

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 **I know that not much happened in this chapter, but set up is important, so let's see how much of the foreshadowing you caught onto ;)**

 **If you enjoyed reading then please fave, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughts :D**


	2. Once Upon A Full Moon

**Hello there! If you are reading this, then you are reading the second and hopefully improved edition of this chapter since I tried to upoad this chapter on my phone at first, and I'm pretty sure it messed something up, so yeah, here's a better edition.**

 **Note: Just to clear things up if it's not clear after this chapter, but even though every chapter follows a linear story line, the overall story does jump a bit back and forth in time. However, I should hopefully make it very clear in each chapter where in the timeline we are :)**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter :D**

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~Once upon a full moon~

Zoro had hardly noticed when his captain's head had settled down, rested on his shoulder and joined him in his nap and was mildly surprised when he found Luffy sleeping beside him, or rather _on_ him, after waking up. He also found himself wearing Luffy's hat, which was an uncommon occurrence, since Luffy hardly ever parted with it. Zoro guessed that the action should flatter him and a little smile found a way to his lips, but it soon faded again, because Luffy was breathing just a bit too heavily and he seemed a little too uncomfortable. Zoro tried to wake him by calling his name, but he didn't respond, which was even weirder. He tried to move him a little, pulled him into the shadows and called his name once more, but again there was no response and Zoro kept calling his name and each time his voice rose. It came to a point where the annoying cook came out from the kitchen and asked what was going on, but Zoro just brushed him off with a quick comment and continued trying to wake Luffy. The cook of course was not happy with basically being ignored, but he too seemed to notice that something was off and came running to where Zoro and Luffy were. It came to a point where they were both repeatedly saying Luffy's name and finally he responded.

"What...?" Luffy said weakly and his tired response just worried Zoro even more. He immediately checked for a fever and found that Luffy's forehead was much warmer than it should have been, even if they had been lying in the sun.

"How are you feeling?" The cooked asked before Zoro could and he looked as worried as Zoro felt, which meant that he definitely wasn't being paranoid or overreacting.

"'m fine, just tired..." Luffy said but he did not sound too convincing. This might have been due to the fact that he was actually feeling tired, but if Nami's illness after Little Garden had been anything to go by, illness made you feel sleepy and weak. Zoro switched the way Luffy was lying and prepared to take him to the Sick Bay and this seemed to annoy Luffy slightly, yet he didn't complain, so Zoro tried to explain the situation to him:

"Luffy, you're burning up. You have a fever," but of course Luffy wasn't having any of that and Zoro was almost certain that Luffy would claim that he was fine until he could no longer use the _I'm just tired_ excuse.

"It's just the heat..." Luffy said as if that explained everything and he looked, if possible, even worse than just moments earlier. It was almost like the action of simply being awake was too much for Luffy and that was something Zoro had never thought he would experience. He and the cook then shared a look and they both knew that help was needed.

"Cook! Find Chopper." Zoro commanded and Sanji nodded and headed off into the woods starting his search. The cook was fast and Chopper had gone with Usopp to gather herbs and plants, so they wouldn't be moving around too much. He should be able to find them within the hour. Luffy struggled a little when Zoro carried him inside, but eventually let Zoro take care of him and he was soon asleep, which left Zoro with nothing to do and wasn't that frustrating? Here he was, the first mate of the strawhat pirates, and he could only watch and wait for help as his ill captain just got worse with each passing moment.

Zoro wasn't entirely sure what he had been doing to pass the time, but when the cook came back with Chopper and Usopp right behind him, Zoro could honestly say that he was more than happy to see his stupid face. Chopper got to work immediately and didn't even bother to tell the three crew members to leave, because he knew it would be useless. Zoro was the first mate and Luffy's closest confidant, so he had a _right_ to be there. Usopp was Luffy's best friend and trying to make him leave would have been more than cruel and the cook was just too compassionate for his own good. He had this stupid habit of helping people and caring too much too fast, and he always made other people's problems his own; a trait he seemed to share with Luffy. So all three of them stayed while Chopper nursed Luffy. At first he just did some regular checks on temperature, heart beat and breathing, all while taking notes. He then prepared for a blood test and Zoro could have sworn that Luffy's eyes had opened for a moment, but when he looked to him, his eyes were closed and he showed no signs of being awake.

Zoro and Chopper had a short conversation about Luffy's condition and Chopper promised to have a diagnosis before the day was over. Usopp and the cook both stayed silent during the entire conversation, and let Zoro speak for them. After Chopper had extracted the blood from Luffy he started testing it. Zoro didn't know what he was doing, but if it could get them closer to curing Luffy, it was all fine to him. They then heard the sound of a door being opened and from within the kitchen, they heard Nami calling.

"Sanji-kun?" The cook was quick to leave the Sick Bay and probably went to tell Nami, and Robin who had been accompanying her, what was going on. It wasn't long before Nami entered the Sick Bay, and was immediately shushed by Usopp, because she was usually very loud in unexpected situations. She nodded and took a moment to look at Luffy, brushed some hair away from his face and left the room again. The cook didn't come back, but it was getting late and just because their captain had fallen ill did not mean that he would abandon his duties as a chef. Zoro hated to admit that the cook was not only dutiful, but also very skilled at his job and Zoro honestly looked forward to every single meal, because he knew it would always taste amazing, as well as being nutritious. Zoro also knew that the cook had a special notebook filled with recipes that he had created just for Zoro as a way for him to stop drinking (at least stop drinking too much too early).

He was also aware of the fact that both he and Chopper were paying close attention to his training sessions, so that the cook could always give him exactly what his body needed. At first it hadn't bothered Zoro much, but after the recent events at Thriller Bark he had noticed the cook paying extra attention to him and interrupting his training sessions more and more. However, this wasn't as bad as when they fought. Zoro fought the cook on a daily basis and often more than once. In the beginning their fights had been nothing but a way to vent their frustrations at each other, because they did _not_ get along. Later it had turned into a daily occurrence because it served as a sparring match and a way to improve both fighting experience and flexibility in a fight where you never knew what the other would do. So these sparring sessions had become precious to Zoro, because it was a way of training that let him connect with the cook in the only way he knew how: Though fighting. But ever since they had left Thriller Bark the stupid swirly brow had been holding back. Zoro was aware of why that was, but he did not like being looked down upon, especially by the cook, who was strong but not as strong as Zoro. One could say that their relationship was a bit strained at the moment, even more than usual, so it would only be a matter of time before Zoro completely lost it and confronted the cook about his stupid behaviour.

Dinner came and went and the cook tried to make Zoro and Usopp come eat in the kitchen, but failed miserably and ended up bringing their food to them instead. Sometime during the meal Franky and Brook had come back and they had both been in high spirits, which was immediately ruined when Robin told them about their current situation. Zoro heard them making their way to the Sick Bay, but the cook stopped them before they made it in there and forced them to eat first, and just leave Luffy alone for now. They were quick to obey and the kitchen got quiet again. It seemed that whatever Franky and Brook had been so excited about when they came back had been completely forgotten.

Not long after dinner Chopper had a diagnosis and he ended up calling everyone to the Sick Bay, which just made the whole room way too crowded, but as long as no one started a fight or something of the sort, it would probably be fine... probably.

Chopper had still not said anything, not even to Zoro or Usopp, so when everyone had been gathered, Usopp asked the question they all wanted the answer to:

"How bad is it?" There was a moment of silence before Chopper answered:

"It's not too bad..." Zoro almost felt relieved, but then came the next sentence, "for now, but if we don't treat him... he'll be dead within a week."

The shocked faces of the crew perfectly conveyed what Zoro was feeling right now. This wasn't an enemy that he could cut into pieces and with that have destroyed the threat. This was an enemy that was working within Luffy's body and if he tried to cut the illness, he would cut Luffy too.

"But..." Usopp intervened before everyone just completely lost it, "you can treat him... right?"

"I should be able to, but I've never treated this illness before and..." Chopper looked down and didn't finish his sentence.

"And?" Usopp tried and Chopper looked back up and started frantically explaining.

"I don't have all the ingredients to make the medicine needed and we don't have time to get to the next island to get them, which means that out only hope is finding them on this island, but if they don't grow here naturally or we can't find them in time, then... then..."

"Then Luffy dies..." Usopp finished for him, and looked strangely composed considering their current situation.

"Usually," Robin spoke up and everyone turned to her, "The medicine to cure an illness can be found in the same place the illness came from, so I'd say that the odds are in our favour. Isn't that right, Chopper?"

The doctor smiled and nodded, which sent a wave of relief through the small room.

"It's getting dark," Chopper suddenly said sounding very stern, "I'm going to have everyone searching for ingredients at first light, so get some sleep."

No one argued with Chopper, but they were all quick to take something that would help them sleep. The only ones who stayed with Luffy were Chopper and Zoro. Zoro was still sitting by the foot of Luffy's bed with his hat in his lap. He had his eyes on the battered old strawhat, but he wasn't really looking at it. He was thinking. Thinking about how to best help Luffy, how to gather the ingredients the fastest, and how to keep the spirits of the crew high if the ordeal dragged out longer than expected.

"Chopper..." Zoro said in a low voice and without ever looking up from the hat. The reindeer made a small noise indicating that he was listening, and Zoro waited a moment, "What's the illness?"

"It's called a sun kiss."

"A sun kiss? That's a weird name for an illness that kills people."

"It's venom," Chopper said and turned to face Zoro, "Do you see Luffy's right wrist?"

Zoro turned to Luffy and took his hand to inspect his wrist. Right where the vein would usually be visible was a small mark that almost looked like a sun. It was shaped as a circle, seemed yellow in contrast to Luffy's slightly tanned skin and had small lines growing out from its centre which, if the circle was the sun, were the rays.

"It looks like a sun." Zoro simply said, but never let go of Luffy's hand. It was cold, so Zoro would keep it warm.

"The reason it's called a sun kiss is because of its appearance and the fact that comes from a sun snake's venom. They are small so you wouldn't notice you've been bitten until the symptoms start to show. Of course on animals the effect is much more immediate and as with any animal, the snake only uses venom when they need to hunt. It is unusual for animals to attack humans, so I can only guess that Luffy got unlucky and the snake wasn't aware that what it bit was part of something bigger."

"The reason is irrelevant. What matters is that Luffy got bit and we now need to find a cure."

"You're right. Luffy is our first priority, so get some sleep."

"... I'll sleep here."

Chopper sighed, "Suit yourself."

Neither Zoro nor Chopper slept that night.

 **҉**

The cook was the first one to get up. It was still an hour before sun rise and Zoro heard him preparing breakfast in the kitchen. It was a weird experience though. Zoro wasn't always around when breakfast was being prepared, but when he was, the cook was always in a weirdly good mood. Despite their intense rivalry and the fact that most of their conversations were insults and angry accusations, when the cook was doing his job and Zoro was observing, there was no tension, just peace. The cook would usually be silently singing along to Brook's music, and in the cases where Brook had yet to wake up, he would just hum a slow tune. Zoro was also aware of the fact that the cook hated when people heard him singing, and he probably wasn't aware of the fact that Zoro had heard him singing quite a few times, because when he was cooking, he was off in a whole different world. Zoro was just waiting for the perfect moment to bring the topic up in an argument, because if there was one thing Luffy loved, it was singing and music, and learning that there was someone besides Brook (and Franky according to himself) who could actually sing really well, was sure to get him hyped up. Sure, it was a talent, but if the cook was embarrassed enough to keep it hidden (even from the girls), it would be the ultimate black mail. So the weird thing this morning was the fact that apart from the sounds of utensils and various other kitchen materials it was silent. There was no singing and no humming, it was all just cold steel meeting more cold steel and the occasional running of water. If it hadn't been for the fact that the cook was extremely dutiful, Zoro would have believed that anyone could be in the kitchen cooking breakfast at the moment.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, Zoro heard the door to the kitchen open and close three times. At some point Chopper left to join them for reasons unknown to Zoro, but as long as he could stay with Luffy he was fine with it. The only one Zoro knew was in there, besides the cook and Chopper, was Usopp, since he had bid everyone good morning as they arrived. This was another thing which Zoro found odd and uncommon. Usopp was always the first person to freak out when they encountered a problem and though he had been with Luffy in the Sick Bay the most, apart from Zoro and Chopper, he seemed to be weirdly indifferent towards the idea of Luffy being in mortal danger. And it wasn't that Usopp was just ignoring reality, because he had been the one to point out that Luffy could very well die, so why was it? Zoro did not claim to be able to read people as well as others in the crew, but dammit! Usopp was one of the first people to join Luffy and up until now, Zoro was sure that he knew everything their sniper, and now that Usopp was acting in a way Zoro couldn't understand nor comprehend and he also had Luffy to worry about, Zoro was in a very uncertain place. It was strange how many things changed when the captain was suddenly out of commission.

It wasn't long before more people had gathered and soon the kitchen was full. Zoro would have been perfectly fine with staying in the Sick Bay, but Chopper dragged him into the kitchen with him, which, to Zoro's great annoyance, left Luffy all alone because _what if he woke up? What if someone attacked him? What if he sleep walked?_ Chopper just brushed off all of Zoro's weak attempts to stay with Luffy and forced him to eat with the rest of them. There was about half an hour until sunrise and that meant that they needed a definitive plan very soon. Zoro was about to voice his concern about their plan, or rather the lack of a plan, but the stupid swirly brow interrupted him.

"Chopper and I have discussed what the best way to go about our situation is and we think we have the solution, of course we are open to any suggestions."

Everyone turned their attention towards Chopper and the cook, while they explained the plan.

"Basically, everyone has a job, and with the exception of the people who will stay at the Sunny, everyone is on their own looking for whatever ingredients we don't have. It shouldn't be a problem though, we are the only ones on the island and there seems to be no monsters or anything of the sort. Chopper will explain what everyone will be looking for."

"Usopp, you're up first."

"Yes!"

Chopper took his time to explain to everyone what they were looking for, while handing them a piece of paper with instructions and drawings. Zoro only half listened as there was no need to concern himself with what the others had to do, only what he himself was supposed to do. While Zoro had been half asleep, not listening, Chopper had gone through everyone but Zoro, Robin and the cook. He hadn't talked about himself either, but he was the doctor and for him to leave Luffy would honestly be just as stupid as if Robin suddenly thought she could swim.

"Robin," Chopper said after finishing talking to Franky, "Your job is going to be the hardest, but if my information is correct you have about thirty-six hours to do this."

"Is that Luffy's time limit?" Robin asked, which caught Zoro's attention, hadn't Luffy had a whole week?

"Yes and no," Chopper answered cryptically, "It's because the ingredient you will be looking for is a flower that only blooms during a full moon. Tomorrow night is a full moon, so you just have to find the flower before then, so in that sense it's not that it's Luffy's time limit... But then again, if you should fail we won't get that ingredient and I can't make the medicine."

"Understood. I won't fail then."

"Lastly is Sanji and Zoro," Chopper said and turned to Zoro as the cook was already aware of the plan, "Both of you will be staying on the Sunny."

Zoro did not know how to feel about that. On one hand he was glad to stay with Luffy, but on the other hand, he would much rather be out actually doing something rather than just sitting around. Also the stupid cook was there, why would Chopper have them both stay? And why had the cook agreed to this in the first place?

"Why?" Zoro blurted out, still not knowing if he should feel angry or happy.

"There are three reasons for this, stupid marimo," the cook said calmly which just ignited Zoro's confused anger, "Firstly, you have a shit sense of direction, so we cannot trust you to be on your own. Secondly," the cook said before Zoro could make any sort of retort, "Even _if_ the first reason wasn't true, you are the only person who has not been on the island, which gives you a disadvantage and thirdly," the cook suddenly stood up and walked over to Zoro and put a finger on his chest, right where his heart was, "You are currently our strongest fighter, and if anyone can protect Luffy, it's you. We do not know who might show up on this island, and Chopper and I will be working non-stop, so we won't be at our best. We need you here. _Luffy_ needs you here." The cook made sure to emphasise _Luffy_ and Zoro knew that he was beat and he sighed, choosing not say another word on the topic in order to avoid admitting defeat... which he kind of was by not responding, but whatever. However, Zoro had noticed how the cook had said that he was the strongest fighter, which, if anyone had been doubting that their situation was dire, was a clear and pure sign that they could no longer afford to waste time on small things like friendly rivalry.

But that was another thing which Zoro now started to wonder about. So, sure, Luffy was down and currently experiencing being fatally ill, but how could that alone have such a dramatic effect on both Usopp and the cook. While Usopp remained a completely mystery to Zoro, the cook was usually a very straight forward person when dealing with Zoro, and now he freely admitted that Zoro was stronger than him? No. Something wasn't right. The cook had said that both he and Chopper would be working non-stop, and that's why they needed an extra person to protect Luffy and the ship, but that didn't make any sense when Zoro thought about it. No matter how you looked at this situation, the cook should not have more work than usual, and even on his busiest days, he was always up for a fight, yet, _now_ he says that they need back up? It wasn't right and Zoro would make damn sure to confront the cook about this.

After his little speech, the cook went back to the kitchen and continued making whatever he had been making and silence feel once again, as everyone just looked at their own piece of paper Chopper had given them, trying to memorise everything. Some had more to do than others, but it seemed that the less things you had to find, the harder they would be to get.

Chopper and Robin resumed their conversation about the mysterious flower she had to find.

"Can you tell me more about it?" Robin asked, wanting to get as much information as possible.

"I don't know much," Chopper confessed, "It's called a Moon Flower and supposedly it's a beautiful blue flower. It needs the moon like normal flowers need the sun, and it should be larger than your average flower... I'm sorry that's all I know."

"I've seen that flower," A voice spoke up and for a moment everyone at the table looked at each other, trying to figure out who had said it, but then the voice spoke again and they all turned to Luffy who stood by the door between the Sick Bay and the kitchen. Zoro was quickly by his side and immediately supported him even if Luffy showed no signs of not being able to support himself. He was still cold though, but before Zoro could voice this concern, Usopp was there with a blanket and wrapped Luffy tightly in it.

"You should be in bed!" Chopper accused, but didn't do anything to stop him from walking around and in the end Luffy took his place besides Zoro's, although both Zoro and Usopp made a point to stay right beside him in case he should need them. Chopper told Sanji to give him something warm and not three minutes later Luffy was wrapped in a blanket, surrounded by his friends and sipping on a cup of warm tea.

"The flower," Luffy continued as if it hadn't been minutes since the conversation started, "it's on the top of the volcano."

"The top of the volcano?" Nami questioned, "When did you go there?"

"The turtle," Luffy said as if that had been obvious, which to Zoro, who had not been there, wasn't obvious at all, "it took me there. There were _so_ many different animals up there too, but right in the middle there was this rea~lly huge flower. It was bright blue, just like the ocean, but it hadn't bloomed yet."

"That's really good information, but shouldn't you be sleeping?" Robin said sounding slightly confused about their situation, because, yes, Luffy should probably be sleeping, but he had also just provided them with vital information that could save his life.

"I got tired of sleeping," Luffy shrugged and Zoro took a moment to think about how weird that sentence sounded. Then Zoro noticed, as Luffy put down his empty cup, the mark on his wrist had grown in size. Zoro quickly grabbed Luffy's hand to make sure he wasn't seeing things and true enough, what had earlier been a sun the size of an ant, was now a sun the size of a fingertip.

"Chopper. It's bigger," Zoro stated, trying not to sound too worried, but even if his voice was steady his face was showing dread, because he did not know what this meant. And not knowing something is sometimes worse than knowing something bad.

"Relax," Chopper said and Zoro calmed down, if only a little, "The mark will grow in size until he's healed, but the mark itself is not harmful."

Zoro let go of Luffy's hand and allowed him to tug himself back into the blanket. The next ten minutes were followed by some small talk between Luffy and the other crew members, while Zoro just observed Luffy, ready to assist him at any moment.

"I hate to break the moment," the cook suddenly said and gained everyone's attention, "but the sun is rising." The resolve on the faces of the strawhats was plain as day. They would cure their captain, whatever it may take.

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 **How was that? Good? I hope you enjoyed it. I promise that next chapter has a bit more... action. I won't spoil, but next chapter has a bunch of things, so look forward to that.**

 **But yeah, if you enjoyed reading then please favorite the story, follow for more chapters and leave a review with your thoughts. Also, how much of the foreshadowing are you guys picking up on, and although very little of it has been paid off yet, I'd like to know whether you guys think it's set up well. I really want to improve on the forshadowing parts of writing, so please let me know if it works :D I'd also like to know what you think of the chapter lenghts. I try to keep them around 4-5k, but tell me what you think about that.**


	3. In Search of White

**And here is the third chapter. I really hope you enjoy it :D Thank you so much for all the people who have favorited, followed and/or reviewed the story, it is super motivating and it makes my day :D**

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~In search of white~

Usopp awoke feeling slightly drowsy. The sleeping pill he had taken to put himself to sleep had been effective to say the least and as he sat up in his hammock he had to take a minute to properly wake up. When his brain seemed to be functioning as it should, he took a look around. There were four empty beds: Luffy's, Zoro's, Chopper's and Sanji's. This left Usopp with Franky and Brook, who were still under the effects of the sleeping drug and Usopp slipped quietly out of the Men's Quarters to not wake either of them. It would be best to allow them all the sleep they could get before the trials of the day started. Usopp went straight to the kitchen, because that would be the most likely place to get information about Luffy's condition. Upon arriving he found only Sanji in the room, meaning that the girls had yet to wake up. Usopp muttered a quiet good morning to Sanji and he was given a cup of tea. Usopp took his usual place at Luffy's left, which also happened to be the place closest to the Sick Bay. As people came through the door Usopp bid them a good morning to which he would just get a nod or a forced smile, but he thought that it was important to stay positive. Usopp knew that he was always the first person to voice the worst case scenario and his negativity was legendary, but when everyone was depressed the best way to counter it would be for the most pessimistic person to act optimistic, even if doing so was extremely hard and went against all his normal instincts. At least that was the conclusion which Usopp had come to, so no matter how worried he was and how bleak everything seemed, he would be sure to put on a smile and encourage the crew. Besides, this was Luffy and they were his crew. They had survived declaring war against the world, fighting zombies and being condemned by God. If they could make it through all that, then they sure as hell could make it through this.

Yet, even if Usopp was slightly faking his optimism and his smiles to hide his immense worry for his best friend, he somehow didn't feel the slightest bit scared. At least not anymore. When Sanji had first interrupted his and Chopper's herb search with panic written all over his face and through ragged speech tried to explain that something was wrong with Luffy, Usopp had been terrified. The three of them had hurried back and when Usopp had first seen Luffy lying in the bed drenched in sweat, gasping for breath and looking far from comfortable his heart had started racing and his vision had gone white. He had stayed with the rest of them in the Sick Bay by Luffy's side, and even though Usopp felt like he was having a mental breakdown, everyone had been so focused on Luffy and Chopper that no one had paid any attention to him. Usopp hadn't known what to do with himself until the moment Chopper gave the diagnosis and told them that Luffy was actually dying. In that single moment it was like all of Usopp's fears disappeared from his mind, because the one thing he feared the most was now a scaring reality, and it cleared Usopp's head. Usopp had known for a long time that Luffy meant more to him than anything else, it was the same for all of them, but Usopp had also found that the weaker Luffy appeared, the stronger he became. It had been the same in Enies Lobby. Although the enemy had been vastly different, it had been the same. Rob Lucci had been hovering over Luffy's almost defeated self, and while Usopp had been horrified through most of the ordeal, in that moment he had only thought of Luffy. He had only thought of his best friend lying on the ground getting ready to accept a defeat he would later come to regret and Usopp had challenged both Lucci and his dying captain to give him their worst. And just like that Luffy got up, Luffy fought and Luffy won just like he always did, and Usopp had faith that this time would be no different.

Around the time Usopp finished his tea, both girls had woken up and they were now sitting with Usopp by the table drinking their morning coffee. They were silent, their faces never giving away their thoughts and Usopp had noted how Sanji hadn't asked them about their morning or even talked to the girls, which freaked Usopp out if just slightly. Their attention was caught when the door to the Sick Bay slowly crept open and Chopper entered the kitchen. Usopp was about to ask about Luffy, but Chopper signalled that they wait and went straight to Sanji. Had it not been for the fact that Sanji was working at the same time, it would have been quiet enough for Usopp to hear what they were talking about, but the running of the water and the banging of metal drowned out most of the words, so Usopp eventually gave up on trying. If it was important and about Luffy, they would tell the rest of them later.

While Sanji and Chopper were talking, Franky and Brook arrived and Usopp bid them a good morning as well. Franky replied with a little smile that quickly faded, but Brook was much like Usopp and answered with the cheeriest greeting he could muster even if it wasn't any convincing at all. Chopper then disappeared back into the Sick Bay and Sanji started setting the table. When food was all ready Chopper came back with a grumpy Zoro in tow. As Sanji made his way around the table with food, he enlightened the crew about his and Chopper's plan. Chopper then went on to explain to each person what they were supposed to be searching for and Usopp tried his best to memorise the different herbs he was tasked with finding. Usopp had always been good with finding unique herbs and was also quite good at telling them apart, especially after having befriended Chopper, whom he quite often accompanied in herb searches, so he was happy with the task he been given. Zoro had been the only one to outright protest about his job, but then again Usopp understood. As much as he wanted to be with Luffy, there was something comforting about being someone who helped in curing him rather than just sitting around. Zoro had been given the title of 'bodyguard' but if nothing actually happened that would be the most frustrating job of them all. However, even if Zoro had protested Sanji had set him straight in a way only Sanji would have been able to. Say what you will, but those two had a special way of communicating and Usopp knew that if it had been anyone but Sanji who tried to convince Zoro that he should just stay put, he would have flipped the table and started a fight... which Sanji would then have been forced to stop.

After the plan had been explained the only conversation to be heard was one between Robin and Chopper. Usopp was only half paying attention as it didn't have anything to do with his job, but suddenly a voice joined their conversation and Usopp looked around the table to identify who had said something. Apparently he hadn't been the only one to do so, because all around him he found confused stares, until the voice spoke again and they all looked towards Luffy who was standing by the door to the Sick Bay. Usopp's first thought was to go directly to Luffy's side, but he knew that Zoro would do exactly that so he headed to a cupboard where Sanji always kept some spare blankets in case they were having a cold morning, took one and wrapped it around Luffy. From the look on Zoro's face and the way he acted around Luffy, it was clear that he, just like Usopp, had been expecting Luffy to be a lot worse, but Luffy carried himself as he normally would have and took his place between Zoro and Usopp, who both neglected their seats and just hovered around their captain instead.

Sanji got Luffy a cup of tea and Luffy continued the conversation from earlier about the mysterious flower he had found at the top of the volcano. Usopp once again didn't really listen to the conversation, but he did pay attention to both Luffy and Zoro, and Usopp watched as Zoro's expression got more and more worried for reasons Usopp was unaware of. It wasn't long until he found out that the worry had been unnecessary and it had all started with a weird sun-like mark on Luffy's wrist. After that the conversations continued and Usopp noticed as the crew looked more lively now that Luffy was there with them. Even if he was the reason of their worry, he still managed to lighten everyone's mood in a way that only he could... but the moment had to end with the rising of the sun. It was time to get to work.

Sanji had been packing bags with food to all of the crew members leaving the Sunny and was handing them out to people as they left the kitchen. Just like everyone else Usopp packed his bag with a few extra things as well, mainly weapons, but also some special tools to pick the herbs with and containers for them. Usopp was about to leave the ship when he was stopped by Zoro.

"Aren't you worried at all?" Zoro asked in a very monotone voice which kind of gave off the feeling that he himself wasn't all that worried... or emotional, but Usopp knew better.

"What do you mean? Of course I'm worried," Usopp said as a matter of fact, but Zoro still wouldn't let him leave and Usopp elaborated, because he knew why Zoro was acting like he was, "I'm worried, but I also know that we, that Luffy, can pull through this, and if staying optimistic can get us to that point faster, then I don't want to waste time on negativity."

And just like that Zoro smiled and let out a slight chuckle, "I guess I've been underestimating you...". The statement came out as whisper, but Usopp still heard every word. He too smiled and went off into the jungle.

As it was still morning it was nowhere near as hot as it had been the first two days, and combining the slight chill with the fact that he was all alone in an unknown jungle really didn't do well on Usopp's nerves. However, he had promised himself that he wouldn't let his anxieties get the better of him, even if he was alone and no one could see, as it would just hinder his job and Luffy's life was on the line.

Usopp's task was essentially three different things all involving herbs. The first thing he had been tasked to find was white willow. It was a herb which helped reduce fever and Chopper had asked him to find that one first as it wasn't a part of the actual medicine which wouldn't be done until after the full moon in two days. The herb was meant to prevent the venom from spreading too fast and to ease some of Luffy's pain. The remaining two things were for the medicine, so Usopp had more time to look for those. Usopp already had a good idea of where to start looking for the white willow and if he calculated correctly it would only take him about an hour to get to the spot. As Usopp walked through the jungle he came to the small pond where Luffy had been given a ride by the giant turtle. Unlike the first time where they had chased all the animals away by making a path, the animals were still there when Usopp arrived. There were mostly the same animals as when they had first found the pond, but there were a few new birds that Usopp hadn't seen the first time. The turtles were also there, but Usopp noticed that they were one short of the amount they had originally been. Usopp couldn't waste any time by the pond admiring the animals, so he ignored what he saw and ventured deeper into the jungle.

He followed a path which he and Chopper had made the day before, though it was hardly visibly anymore due to all the new vines and trees that had started growing there and were closing up the openings which they had made. Usopp paid no heed to the fast growing jungle around him as it was the Grand Line, and after seeing everything that they had seen, a little weird jungle was nothing surprising. Even though the path was hard to follow, Usopp soon arrived at the place where Sanji had suddenly appeared before the two of them the day before to bring the news of Luffy's sudden illness. This was also why Usopp knew where to look for the white willow as Chopper had specifically said that they were likely to be in the area they hadn't had time to explore. Around the time it got hot enough for Usopp to shed his shirt, he made it to an area where the trees were shorter, but standing even closer together making it hard to move around. Usopp knew that this was what he had been searching for, so he hung his bag on a branch and started searching amongst all the plants. Usopp threaded carefully as the entire ground beneath him was covered in different plants and herbs, and accidentally stepping on the plant he was searching for wasn't what you could call the best start to curing Luffy.

Usopp had been slowly making his way through the small area, when he suddenly heard a noise. He immediately looked up to determine the threat and was ready to hide behind the nearest tree, when he saw a stag. It was not a full grown stag, but it was still quite big and it could probably trample Usopp if he didn't pay attention. However, the stag was stuck and couldn't move, so Usopp dared to venture closer. It had somehow managed to get it's antlers stuck in the trunk of a tree, which Usopp first found weird as a stag of this size would have broken its antlers if it tried to charge into a tree. But this was the Grand Line and Usopp had seen weirder, so he pulled out his knife and started to cut the stag free from tree. As Usopp worked, he noticed how there were two smaller trees lying on the ground and all the plants around them had been trampled. It wasn't unusual for animals to fight each other and stags were especially prone to fight for leadership, so Usopp thought of it as natural animal behaviour. It did not take Usopp long to free the stag and only a small piece of its right antler had been damaged, so Usopp was quite happy with his work. It seemed that the stag was too and licked his hand in gratitude before taking off.

Not long after having helped the stag, Usopp found what he was looking for and collected a good amount of it. He then made his way back to the Sunny, where he would give Chopper the herbs and then return to collect what he needed for the medicine. It took Usopp near two hours to make his way back, but just before he stepped unto the beach he looked to the Sunny and immediately he knew something was wrong. And to be fair anyone would know that something was up because the main sail was on fire. Usopp quickly pulled down his goggles and took a closer look without leaving his location. There was a battle on deck and about twenty enemies trying to take out Sanji who was defending the ship. None of the enemies looked strong, but Usopp knew that looks could be deceiving, Luffy being a good example. Usopp immediately climbed the nearest tree to gain some height and a better perspective and got ready to attack. Usopp thought a bit about how to angle his first attack, as he had the advantage of surprise. He tried to determine who was either the leader or the strongest, but in the end his hand got forced as Sanji was about to receive a deadly blow from behind, which he had no possibility of dodging as he was occupied with two swordsmen, who almost had him cornered. So Usopp shot the person who would have killed Sanji and the surprise attack allowed Sanji to take out a good five people as they all looked around to see where the attack had come from. Usopp then assisted Sanji and made sure that no one could sneak up on him, and together they managed to take out the enemies.

After the fall of the last enemy, Usopp ran to the deck of the Sunny where Sanji had collapsed in exhaustion. As much as Usopp wanted to ask what the hell had happened, he decided to tie up all the enemies first just so that they couldn't try anything. Sanji helped him when he was halfway through the job and knocked out all the people who either faked being unconscious or were just to injured to fight anymore. And then Usopp noticed something which he should have noticed as soon as he saw Sanji fighting. Where was Zoro? Zoro had actually been forced to stay on the ship in case things like this happened, so why was Sanji the only one fighting?

"Sanji..." Usopp said slowly and Sanji just looked to him, "Where is Zoro?" Sanji looked away again and tightened the rope binding their enemies.

"Chopper is tending to him..." was the answer and Usopp's eyes widened. Had Zoro fallen in battle? That wasn't right. Zoro wouldn't have lost to these guys, Sanji had only had problems because he had been outnumbered and a great deal of them had been swordsmen, which were people Sanji trouble fighting as he couldn't guard himself against blades. Zoro on the other hand should have been perfectly fine. Usopp left Sanji to finish the work and hurried to the Sick Bay.

Usopp found Chopper tending to an unconscious Zoro and for a minute he just stood there speechless. It was almost a perfect replica of Thriller Bark where Zoro had been unconscious for a good three days while Chopper had tended to him non-stop. Zoro was covered in bandages, some of which already needed to be changed, and the blood transfusion was well under way. Zoro looked like he was in extreme pain, and taking a quick glance at Luffy who lay awake in the bed next to him, Zoro seemed worse off than their actually dying captain, which spoke levels of what Zoro was going through.

"What..? How..?" Usopp muttered, not quite knowing what he wanted to ask and what answers he wanted.

"His injuries from Thriller Bark haven't yet healed..." Chopper said as he worked, "I knew they weren't healed, but... I didn't think that it was this bad..."

"Don't blame yourself!" Usopp spoke hurriedly, "He's still alive thanks to you, so don't blame yourself."

"I know, but... I shouldn't have let him fight! Sanji and I kept him here to ensure that he wouldn't get hurt any further, and yet, as soon as we were attacked... There was a really strong guy, a devil fruit user, and the others were stalling me and Sanji, so Zoro had to take him on, and... he just went beyond his limit to take him out, even though he got hurt!" Chopper was mumbling at this point, so Usopp calmed him down and gave him a hug.

"Chopper, you are our doctor. Your job is to heal us after we get injured. What we do to get injured is not your fault! Zoro and Luffy have both been through worse than this, and as long as you're here, they'll make it."

"You're right," Chopper sighed, "It's no use crying over spilt milk, I just have to patch them up. Did you get the white willow?" Usopp handed it to him and Chopper started mixing them into some weird paste, which Usopp decided that he wasn't going to question. Instead he sat down by Luffy's bed and removed the cloth on his forehead. He knew he should be going to look for the remaining ingredients, but it was hard to leave Luffy's side, especially now when Zoro was down for the count. Luffy seemed to understand his worry and smiled up at him and Usopp reached out to move some hair away from his sweaty forehead. His fever had definitely gone up and Usopp just prayed that the herbs he had brought back would help reduce some of that fever if just a little bit until all the ingredients had been collected. It was hard to see his captain and best friend in pain like this.

Usopp placed the now cool cloth on Luffy's forehead and whispered: "We'll save you, Luffy, I promise."

Luffy took his hand before he could leave and whispered a weak: "I know," before letting him go again. They smiled at each other and Usopp left to find the remaining ingredients on his list.

He passed Sanji on his way out and it occurred to Usopp that he hadn't gotten a good look on Sanji before now. He had deep cut over his right eye and there had been blood dripping down over his eyelids and it had left a trail all the way down to his chin. The blood was mostly dry now, and there were signs of Sanji having attempted to wipe some of the blood away which had left most of his visible face in a slightly red colour. There were also blood all over his clothes. Sanji had been wearing a pink, short sleeved shirt and a white vest, along with some white shorts. Usopp wondered whether his clothes would ever get clean again. The only comfort he could take in looking at all the blood was that most of it probably didn't belong to Sanji, but his enemies who had had the misfortune of getting kicked into oblivion. Still, there was more blood coming from Sanji than just the cut by his eye. He had small cuts up and down his arms and single long one that stretched from his right foot to his knee, the cut wasn't all that deep, but that didn't mean that it wasn't painful. From the way Sanji held himself, Usopp speculated that he had taken some damage to his ribs, and he could only hope that they weren't broken, just slightly damaged. Usopp promised himself to get his job done as fast as possible so that he could make it back and ease some of their workload. Even if there were no more enemy attacks, Sanji was still required to cook and they had to maintain their ship in case of a storm or other weird weather conditions. There was so much to do on the Sunny and right now the only one who wasn't injured was the doctor, and under no circumstances could Chopper be allowed to fall. That would surely be the end of them.

So Usopp set out, but unlike last time, he didn't know where to start looking. Chopper had said that his best bet was on the southern side of the island, which was a good four hour walk away, so even if he was lucky and found what he needed immediately, he still had to sacrifice eight hours, so he prayed that there would be no further incidents on the Sunny at least until someone came back.

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 **A little more action in this chapter, still not much, but I promise there is a good fight scene coming up in next week's chapter :D I think I have made the foreshadowing in this chapter more obvious than in the first two, but again, let me know what you think I'm hinting at here.**

 **As per usual, please fave it you like the story, follow for more and leave a review with your thuoghts. All the support is much appreciated.**


	4. From Porcelain to Ivory to Steel

**What's up? Here's the fourth chapter of Sun Kissed, I hope you enjoy :)**

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~From porcelain to ivory to steel~

Nami knew exactly where she was going. There was no time to waste and the job she had been given was perfect for her. She had grown up on a tangerine farm and therefore she knew where trees bearing fruit thrived the best. Her job was to find lemon looking fruit. It was basically a pink lemon, but it had a fancy name which Nami couldn't remember, but that wasn't important. She had the drawing of it and she had been told what it was, so she knew where to find it. She knew the kind of soil she was looking for. It had to rich in bacteria and water, so it had to be on the island's northern side where Nami had determined the soil would be the richest. She also knew that trees bearing fruit needed plenty of sunlight, so it couldn't be located in an area where the trees stood too close to each other like they had done in the part of the jungle, which they had first explored.

Nami had been walking for almost four hours when she finally reached her destination. It wasn't too far from the Sunny and with some luck, she could be back by sunset. Nami smiled when she reached a place where the trees thinned out, but her smile faded as soon as she heard some unfamiliar voices. Nami was quick to hide and climbed the nearest tree, where the leaves would cover her perfectly. It wasn't until Nami had been hidden in the tree for a good five minutes that she could start making out what the voices were saying and as she had nothing better to do, she just listened.

"I don't understand why the captain is making us do this?" One guy said and there was a sound of a fist meeting the trunk of a tree. Nami was glad that he hadn't hit the tree she had been hiding in, because she would surely have yelled out in surprise.

"It can't be helped. We are the newest members, it's only fair if we do the boring work," another man said, "when someone else joins, they'll have this job."

"'Only fair'? We're looking for food! Shouldn't this job be given to the kitchen boys?!" This time the guy slammed his fist into the tree Nami was hiding in, but she was prepared and put a hand to her mouth to prevent any sound from escaping.

"Let's take a break," the calmer one of the two suggested, "We'll make camp here and set a base. We can hunt wild game if you want to do other things that picking herbs and gathering fruits."

"Fine," the angry one said and Nami heard as they started unpacking their things. She was feeling brave today so she peeked out of the leaves and took a look at the people who had decided to set camp right under the tree she was hiding in.

One of them was big, like really big. He wasn't super tall, maybe around Franky's height, he was just a mountain of muscles. One of his arms were probably bigger than Nami and she shuddered when she thought about how easy it would be for him to crush her like a grape. In addition to being way bigger than Nami liked, he also carried a giant axe on his back. She really didn't want to get on this guy's bad side.

There was one who was significantly smaller, but that was just in comparison to the big guy. He reminded Nami a bit of a shaggy version of Sanji. He had a tender and lean build, but he was no doubt strong. He had brown hair a little longer than Sanji, but tied in a ponytail with only a few bangs falling on his face. He wore long, loose trousers and a white shirt which had definitely seen better days, and by his belt he had two guns attached, as well as a small dagger. Somehow Nami felt that he was the deadlier of the two.

There was also a third person. This guy was younger that the first two, and looked significantly weaker. He had short black hair and he wore a simple grey shirt with matching shorts. He had a small pocket knife at his belt, but otherwise no weapons. Nami guessed that he was some sort of cabin boy, who had just been dragged along to carry their things and make their camp.

Nami would have had no problem creating a diversion which would look quite natural, thanks to her clima tact, but the problem lay in the fruit she was supposed to bring back. Right opposite Nami, where the three guys had set up their camp, was the tree she was looking for. Nami knew that now that they were setting camp, they wouldn't leave and she couldn't really stay hidden in the tree until they eventually decided to leave, which according to the conversation could be days from now. They had equipment and gear for a camp, and they had said that they would make a base, which meant they were planning on staying in this exact spot until they had the food they needed. So Nami needed to find some way to get the fruit without getting into a fight she couldn't hope to win.

҉

Nami was getting pretty sore from sitting on the same branch for hours on end. She was waiting for the perfect moment where they would leave camp to go hunting, but they had been arguing for so long about how to do this and that, and what was the smartest thing to do that they had never gotten anywhere. Nami desperately needed to get to the tree before nightfall, because she did not want to walk through the forest in the dark. There was no telling what could happen if she couldn't see, and as long as there were enemies around she couldn't light a torch as it would give away her position. She had about one hour before night arrived, and the walk back would be around four hours, so even if she somehow got the fruit now she was still doomed to three hours of darkness. Though at that point she would be safely away from these guys and she might dare to make some light, but these were all speculations for later, for now, she needed to get to the fruit.

Finally, the guys had stopped arguing and to Nami's luck and good fortune the one who was left behind to guard the camp was the scrawny looking kid, who probably had zero fighting experience. She waited ten minutes until she initiated her attack, since she didn't want any noise to lure the other guys back to camp. She was smart enough to know that she was a dead girl, if she had to fight all three of them.

Nami had decided to go with a surprise attack rather than a seduction attempt, as this guy was probably more scared of failing and getting punished, than he was attracted to her. So she prepared for her attack by making her famed thunder clouds and attacked with a strong _Thunder Tempo_ which would knock out most people. As soon as the attack had successfully hit its target, Nami jumped down from the tree and made her way to the pink lemons, not once looking back at her opponent. A big mistake.

Nami felt a searing pain in her left foot and fell to the ground in pain. Somehow the boy had stayed unaffected by the attack and had only fallen down due to shock. From his place on the ground he had stabbed Nami in the foot with his little pocket knife and he now towered above her. Nami would have been horrified if the boy had shown some kind of confidence, but after having stabbed her he just looked more scared than her and muttered a weak _I'm sorry._ Nami took the chance to look at the damage. She was bleeding alright, but it wasn't much worse than what Miss Doublefinger had done to her back in Alabasta, and she was much tougher now than she had been back there, so she got back up on her feet, and prepared herself for the fight to come.

The boy was clutching the small knife like a lifeline and the only thing that worried Nami about this situation was that he had taken no damage from the lightning which was her strongest attack. She would just have to figure it out as she went along... or perhaps she could avoid fighting all together. The boy didn't seem up for it, so Nami could always try to sway him.

"Why don't we make a deal?" Nami said smoothly trying to sound intimidating, but flirtatious at the same time, "I just grab the fruit on that tree behind you and then I leave without defeating you. You won't have to tell your two friends anything and no one gets hurt, sounds good right?" She tried to smile to the boy, but apparently her little seduction attempt didn't work.

"No! They'll find out! I have to defeat you or die trying!" The boys legs were shaking more than Nami had ever seen Usopp shake, so she honestly wasn't too scared of fighting him. She just couldn't let her guard down again. She got in her fighting position and waited until the boy came to her.

He charged at her, knife first, and she blocked him with the clima tact and swiped him off his feet. He landed on a surface of moss and flowers, making his landing soft, but she immediately tried to hit him in the head, in the hopes of knocking him out, but he quickly rolled away and tried to stab her left thigh as he got back up on his feet. She quickly blew him away with a burst of cold air ejected by a wind dial, but he managed to leave a small cut on her leg. It wasn't deep, so only a few drops of blood spilled, but Nami got annoyed because despite his cowardice, he still put up a decent fight... but only a decent fight.

Nami had a plan and she was already going through the first step without the boy noticing. She was steadily increasing the temperature around the boy which would no doubt make him sweat, and that was important. After the two had been gashing out after each other for some time, Nami decided that it was time. She made the temperature drop rapidly around him which, using the sweat on his skin, would make his body very cold much faster than his body could adjust to it. That would lower his reaction speed and his punches would get weaker for about a minutes time. A minute, however, was more than what Nami needed to take him out. Since lightning probably didn't work she decided to go for his head again, but this time her swing of the clima tact would be faster thanks to the wind dial which would boost the speed. This would have been perfect, but for some reason the boy's reaction time hadn't slowed down at all and he managed to dodge an attack which Nami was sure would have landed, which meant that she lost her balance and fell to the ground.

"How?!" Nami screamed in frustration, "Why don't my attacks work on you?!" She didn't exactly expect a reply, but the boy answered anyway.

"L-lightning and heat based attacks don't work on me... unless it's really really hot..." The boy stammered and apologized again. Seriously what was wrong with this guy?

"And why is that?" Nami asked, hoping that he was stupid enough to provide with more answers... he was.

"I-it's my d-devil fruit... M-my body is made of porcelain..." He answered and Nami just looked at him for a while... porcelain.. had she heard that right? Porcelain was fragile right, shouldn't that make a person weak? But the more she thought about it the more it made sense. Like rubber, porcelain wasn't affected by lightning, which was how he'd endured the first attack. Porcelain also didn't get affected by low heat levels, which meant that the boy probably wouldn't start sweating unless he was in the mouth of an erupting volcano. He also hadn't taken any direct hits from any of Nami's attempts to hit him in the head and the one time she had succeeded in making him fall, he had fallen onto the soft surface, where he wouldn't get hurt. It all made sense, and it also meant that she had to change tactics. If her weather based techniques wouldn't work, she would have to do it the old fashioned way. It had been some time since she had used a staff... as a staff, but years of stealing from pirates by herself weren't forgotten and she could still fight with her body.

She decided that if she could just hit him in the head, or maybe even in one of his legs, she would win, question was just how. The boy was fast and if she was too close for too long, he would stab her. The little pocket knife might seem useless, but the smaller the weapon, the harder it was to block, and if she was stabbed enough times, she would bleed out very fast.

Before Nami could come to a solution to her problem the boy attacked again, but this time his left hand transformed into a sharp edge, and he closed in on her from two sides. Nami was fast to react and dodged the knife coming from the right, while she pushed his other hand aside with her clima tact. She then planted a kick on his chest and although there hadn't been much force behind it, the pain on his face was clear, which meant that he was weak to direct attacks on his body. While the boy was still reeling from the pain, Nami attacked again and this time she had more success. He hadn't been fast enough to dodge the attack, so he tried to block it with his arm. When her clima tact collided with his arm there was a shattering sort of noise and he fell back in pain. Now to deal the finishing blow. Nami got ready to swing her clima tact fiercely down to his legs, so that he wouldn't be able to move around, but just before she could do so, a bullet was shot right by her feet and she quickly retreated.

Much out of luck, Nami now found herself face to face with that shaggy looking dude and his face told her that she was in for a world of pain.

"What do we have here?" He teased and looked her up and down. If she wasn't trying to protect herself, she would have covered her body up as much as possible, but she kept her stance, ready to defend herself, "Aren't you a beautiful one?" He licked his lips and she shivered.

"Beautiful enough for you to let me go?" She pleaded with very little confidence, and he just smiled at her.

"Let you go? After you've attacked my little cabin boy? He might not be the strongest, but he is a fellow crew mate, and the captain would be sad to hear that we let the person who did this _awful_ thing to him escape. So girl, you can either surrender now, and I won't hurt you... too much, or we can do this the hard way. Your choice."

Nami gulped, the big guy was nowhere to be seen and the boy probably wouldn't fight now that back-up had arrived, so she calculated her chances and slowly let her clima tact do its work, while she distracted him.

"If I surrender," she stalled, "what exactly would you do to me?"

"Well, we'd give you to our captain, tell her what you have done and then.. well, the captain has been missing a girl's company for some time now, so I'll let you imagine the rest."

Nami trembled. She hoped she could get safely away from here, she just needed to grab the fruit and then run, run as fast as she could. She just needed to make sure that he couldn't follow her, for at least a little while, and since the boy was down, she now had her greatest asset at her disposal again; the weather. The clouds were slowly forming and without a warning there was a great downpour which took the guy by surprise.

"What the hell?!" He exclaimed and looked up towards the sky. Luckily for Nami the forest was just thick enough for her clouds to look as if they covered the entire forest, when in reality they only covered the small area where they stood. This meant that he had no idea that this was her doing and apparently the boy decided not to tell him, so she played along.

"What's with this rain?" She screamed, "My weapon won't work now!" She played the perfect part of a girl in distress, and by the mention of weapons, the guy looked to his guns. This had been her motive, wetting the gunpowder, so he no longer had any long ranged weapons. There was no telling how much her thunder tempo would affect him, so she'd rather play it safe and take as many assets away from him as possible.

While the guy was examining his weapons, she quickly prepared her thunder clouds and attacked before he could do anything to stop her. This time she made sure to keep an eye on him as she made her way to the tree and picked the pink lemon. She carefully placed it in her bag and got ready to leave when they guy started to stir. She decided to give him a good bang in the head before turning around to escape.

"What's all this noise?" a deep voice called and Nami cursed her luck. First the boy with the devil fruit power, then the guy with the guns and now this one, the big one. What were the chances?

Nami slowly took a few steps back and now found herself cornered. She had her back to a tree, and if she ran in the direction she was standing in right now, she would both get lost because the sun was setting and she would also probably get caught as the trees in this direction thinned out and there was nowhere to hide. The pain in her foot slowly began to make itself noticed again, so if she before doubted whether or not she could outrun them, now she was sure she couldn't. She _needed_ the cover of the trees to get away safely. At least now she had the fruit, so she only had to worry about escaping alive.

She let her clima tact get to work again and prepared for yet another thunder tempo, but this time, a warning was shouted from the boy.

"Be careful! She can create lightning!" Nami shot the boy a look of death and resumed her attack, but since she had been forced to attack earlier than planned, the range was smaller than she wanted and the guy dodged it. By now, Nami had almost taken out all of the water from the air and without water, she couldn't create static, so this would be the end of her thunder attacks. There was plenty of water on the ground tough, so Nami cooled the area down and before the big guy could react the ground around him was slippery and a perfect opportunity for Nami to escape in. She dashed past him and as he tried to follow her, he slipped and fell right beside the guy who had been taken down by her lightning.

Nami ran as fast as she could, but she hadn't even been running for thirty seconds when a giant axe came flying her way and took down a tree right beside her. She stopped, looked back and found herself face to face with her two pursuers. The big guy and the dude with the ponytail.

"It seems like we underestimated you, girl," the ponytail guy said and he was no longer smiling, which made Nami even more scared, "Before we would have taken you alive, but now..."

Nami was screwed, there was no time nor enough water to make another lightning attack, and she couldn't run away, so she had to defend herself and figure something else out. The guy drew his dagger and with scary precision he aimed for her neck. Nami barely blocked it, but fell backwards as a result of her fast block. He then went for her torso, she blocked him again, and he looked annoyed, not at her, but the clima tact.

"Enough with this!" He yelled and yanked the clima tact from her hands and threw it away. He was now on top of her, her hands were being pinned down by his free hand and the dagger loomed over her.

"Time to say goodbye!" He swung the dagger towards her and she closed her eyes. There was the sound of a blade cutting through flesh and bone, but Nami felt no pain and opened her eyes. As she looked up she cried tears of relief. The guy had dropped his dagger beside her, as he had been stabbed in the shoulder by a tender sword. When the blade withdrew, the guy released his grip on her and she kicked him away and ran to her saviour.

"Brook!" She cheered and hugged the skeleton.

"Yohoho~ I'm glad you're okay, mademoiselle~" He sang and Nami half-expected him to ask about her panties, but he never did and instead gave her the clima tact, "The fight isn't over yet, Nami-san. We still need to take down that guy." Brook pointed his sword in the direction of the big guy and Nami took a stance beside him. She felt much safer and much more confident now that she wasn't alone anymore, and they prepared for battle.

The guy had at some point retrieved his axe and as he stood taller than Brook and bigger than the two of the combined, Nami took a better look at him. He wasn't really wearing anything, just a torn pair of shorts and some harnesses, which kept his axe on his back when he didn't use it. He had a few scars, but none as prominent as the ones Zoro had. Most of them were on his chest and upper arms, but it seemed like he had some all over his body. Nami gripped her clima tact tighter. It was almost completely dark now and finding their way back would probably take them much more than four hours, but at least there was two of them.

The big guy charged with a battle cry and swung his axe down between them. They each jumped to their own direction and they now had the opportunity to attack from two sides. Nami charged the end of her clima tact with electricity and leapt forward as Brook did the same and jumped to cut the guy from above. Just when they were within range, the guy swung his axe out. First in Nami's direction, which she narrowly dodged by thrusting her clima tact into the ground, thus stopping her momentum and ducked into safety. When the axe came for Brook, the guy was just a second too late and received a cut from elbow to shoulder. Brook then landed in front of Nami and helped her to her feet. They didn't have time for conversation as the guy swung his axe again and they got separated once more. Apparently the guy had decided to go after Nami first and threw the axe after her. She dodged, but the axe took down yet another tree, which then fell in her direction. She escaped with a slight bruise, but her dodging had brought her closer to the big guy and this time it was his clenched fist, which was coming her way. She dodged again as Brook jumped forwards and cut him across his torso.

"What a crazy endurance," she heard Brook say and turned to look at him and their opponent. He had now taken two direct attacks from Brook, but he acted like he couldn't even feel it. Nami's eyes widened. Her stamina was running low. This was her third fight, and they had all occurred within the last hour, she could feel her energy fading from fatigue and blood loss, yet she dared not leave Brook to fight this guy on his own. There was no telling what Brook had been doing since she had seen him that morning, so he couldn't trust that he was completely fine either. They had to beat this guy together and they had to do it fast, because she didn't know how much longer she would last.

The guy readied himself for another punch and they both got out of the way before he could even get close. The guy then decided to pull a tree out from the ground and threw it at them. Nami first screamed, but then dodged out of the way. She then hid behind a tree and heard as Brook got another attack in. Nami then raised the temperature around the guy. If he wouldn't go down after being cut open, maybe he would if he dehydrated. She sent heat ball after heat ball and hoped that it would have some sort of effect. After a while it seemed that his movements slowed down and Nami leapt from her hiding spot and tried to hit him with another thunder charged clash. She succeeded and he took a few steps back. Brook then slashed him again and this time he fell to his knees. The two of them did a high five as it seemed that they had won, but they were too quick to celebrate as the guy got back up on his feet and now looked angrier than ever.

Nami and Brook resumed their battle stances once again, and Nami was ready to tear her head off in frustration. Wouldn't this ever end? The guy took a step closer to them and Nami clutched at her clima tact. And they all stopped moving. The place had gone from being almost completely silent to being loud enough for all of them to cover their ears. Nami couldn't even tell what the sounds were, just that they were loud. It didn't last long and as soon as the sounds died down, the guy went on the attack and Nami wasn't prepared as his fist loomed over her. She screamed, Brook ran to protect her, but he never got the chance, as the guy got tackled to the ground and they heard the howling of a wolf.

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 **To _Guest1:_ Thank you so much for your lovely review, and I am glad that my story gave you a different insight on the characters. It is important for me to make the characters as much alike their cannon selves as possible, even though it is quite hard at times. I hope you will like the many crew interactions to come, and thank you again for being so supportive :)**

 **If you enjoyed reading this chapter then please fave, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughs. All the support is much appreciated :D**


	5. When the Strong Fall

**Here we have chapter 5. This was probably my favorite to write, but I think that has something to with it being a Sanji POV chapter and after having worked on Through the Eyes of a Cook for such a long time, I really enjoy writing him :)**

 **I hope you'll enjoy this chapter :)**

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~When the strong fall~

It had been almost four hours since the ingredient-search party had set out and so far it had been peaceful. Luffy had stayed in the kitchen for an hour while Chopper and Sanji had nurtured him. Zoro had only dropped by once after Chopper had made Luffy go back to bed, but other than that he had stayed in the crow's nest the entire time. Sanji had gone up to give him some lunch, expecting to find the swordsman training, but instead he had found him meditating. To not disturb him, he had set the tray with food and drinks near him and listed out of the room quietly. Zoro not training was a blessing. The real reason Chopper and Sanji had decided to make Zoro stay on the Sunny was to keep him from overworking himself. His injuries from Thriller Bark were not yet healed, even though he did a pretty good job of pretending they had. Chopper didn't know what had happened, but he was no fool, and he knew the limits of each crew member as well as Sanji knew their favorite foods, and Zoro had gone way beyond that limit. Sometimes Sanji wondered why Zoro was still alive, he had already been on the brink of death when he had taken all of Luffy's pain, yet he was still conscious when Sanji had found him after the whole ordeal. It was quite scary to think about really. He also wondered what kept the swordsman going, because Sanji was sure that he was alive due to logic-bending stubbornness and the only answer that made any sense was Luffy.

Sanji remembered well the first time he had meet Zoro and he remembered how much of an idiot he had thought Zoro was. Granted he still thought he was an idiot, but for entirely different reasons. Zoro had been driven by ambitions and nothing else, and he had been so ready to throw his life away for it. He had gone up against Mihawk, when he was obviously way out of his league and he had been defeated by a man wielding a pocket knife. Not really what Sanji would consider an admirable death. Yet, after having been sliced up and having only escaped death by the mercy of Hawk-Eyes himself, Zoro had raised his sword and not only declared that he would one day achieve his goal of becoming the best swordsman in the world, but he had also declared Luffy the king of the pirates. In Sanji's eyes, that was the moment Zoro had taken the role of vice-captain. Usually when talking of vice-captains it was the person who would command the crew in their captain's absence and had the most responsibility following said captain. However in a crew as the strawhats where there were only eight members, not counting Luffy, there wasn't much need for a second-in-command, yet everybody agreed that it was Zoro. It wasn't because Zoro was strong, because so was Sanji. It wasn't because Zoro had been the first to join, because Nami had joined soon after. It wasn't because he had special bond with Luffy, because so did Usopp. It was because of all that and more. It was because he had directly linked his dream to Luffy's. It was because he valued Luffy's dream more than his own, which had once meant everything to him. It was because out of everyone, Luffy put the most faith in Zoro and it was because of all that, Sanji feared their current situation.

When Zoro had been unconscious for three days on Thriller Bark, Luffy had been unusually quiet. He had smiled, laughed and partied with his friends and those from the Rolling Pirate Crew, but he had always excused himself early from the banquets to be by Zoro's side. Sanji figured that half the reason Luffy acted like this, was because whenever there was a big fight and Zoro was down for a day or two, Luffy was down as well. In Alabasta Zoro had woken up only a day before Luffy and in Water 7 it had been the same. When Luffy woke up, Zoro was there, and for the first time when Luffy had woken up, Zoro was in pain, injured and unconscious, and the look on Luffy's face when he had sat by Zoro the first night had scared Sanji, because he came to the same realization Luffy had most likely arrived at. They weren't ready. For a small crew like the strawhats it was important that every single member was strong, and when one of the top fighters fell, it was worrying. They had only just escaped death from Moria and all his zombies, and when Kuma had suddenly appeared, they were completely at his mercy. They weren't ready and that scared Sanji, because suddenly making a stop on their journey could cost them their lives.

Sanji had wanted to ask Luffy what to do about it, but he had never found the courage to do so. Instead he let the anxiety build up inside him and he would find himself wondering how he could best protect the crew. His heart called out for the three who were the least ready for the New World. It wasn't that Nami, Usopp and Chopper couldn't hold their own, because Sanji knew how strong each of them were, but they all had one thing in common which would eventually be their doom. They didn't believe in their own abilities. Nami and Chopper usually saw themselves as having no role apart from being the navigator and doctor, when in reality they were both much stronger than the average person.

Nami reminded Sanji a bit of himself. Her strength came from her wit and intellect, which she used to get out of the worst situations. Sometimes Sanji wondered how Nami could think so lowly of her fighting abilities when she had more than proven herself countless of times in the past. In Alabasta she had defeated Mr. 1's partner, meaning that the only woman stronger than her was Robin, and Robin was powerful. In Enies Lobby she had taken out a member of CP9 who had been strong even before eating a Devil Fruit, and afterwards she had probably had at least twice that strength. Yet Nami was always one of the first to get scared and declare that she couldn't possibly win against someone, even when faced with opponents who should have been no match for her, if she just kept her head clear. What Nami needed was to stand more on her own. She had the abilities and she had strength, she just needed to believe in those, but when constantly surrounded by stronger people who could protect her, it was hard to let go of that fear.

Chopper was different from Nami, because he knew that he had the power, but he was afraid to use it, and Sanji understood why. Chopper's deadliest weapon turned him into a raging killing machine that couldn't tell friend from foe and Franky had experienced that first hand. But because Chopper understood his that his maximum power was so dangerous, he was afraid to get anywhere near it, and that held him back. In a way, Chopper was like Zoro. Quite harmless when he was in a peaceful mindset, and deadly when forced to go all out.

Usopp was like Luffy without being aware of it, because no one was like Luffy, not entirely at least. In the strawhat crew, everyone was an expert at something, which Sanji sometimes found a little too coincidental and it sometimes made him wonder what exactly Luffy was thinking when he recruited new members. Luffy was known for inviting people without any form of discrimination, but the ones who ended up joining were all specialists, and they were probably some of the best the world had to offer. They had the only person in the world who could read the ancient language written on the poneglyphs. They had a person who could predict the weather on the Grand Line and they had Usopp, who Sanji would claim was the person with the most natural talent amongst them, only challenged by Luffy. All of the people in the crew had spent years honing their skills, and not to say that Usopp hadn't, but until he had joined the strawhats his only weapon had been a poorly made slingshot. And no matter what kind of artillery Usopp was armed with, he could use it to perfection within almost no time, and if that wasn't talent, then talent was a myth. Sanji would never forget when Usopp had stood on top of the tower of justice and shot down Robin's captures from a distance greater than any normal gun could reach, and he had done it with such precision that Sanji had been slightly intimidated by the skill. And yet, Usopp had no self esteem. He had left the crew because he felt like he had been a burden to them, when he had probably saved their lives just as many times as everyone else.

The problem was the strength of Luffy, Zoro and Sanji himself. He was aware that their power levels were inhuman and as much as that saved the lives of all of them, it also limited them. Talent casts shadows and even if the people in shadows are just as amazing as the ones in the light, it is discouraging and weakening to be hidden away from the light. They had to do something about their situation soon. If Luffy hadn't brought it up by the time they landed on Fishman Island, he would do it, because it couldn't go on like this, not on the sea ruled by the Yonkou.

Sanji had just finished washing the last dishes and was about to start cooking the dinner for the people on the ship and the people he imagined would be returning before nightfall, when something exploded. Sanji ran to deck and Chopper followed him soon after, and by then the deck was already a battlefield. Zoro was surrounded by thirty people and there were still more on the ship which was now docked next to the Sunny. Sanji joined the battle and began to work his way through the people who had yet to reach Zoro. Chopper disappeared for a short while, most likely to orientate Luffy and order him not to leave the Sick Bay, but he soon returned and joined the battle as well.

At first it all seemed to be going well, but Sanji slowly felt himself tire out and no matter how many enemies they took out, another one just took their place. Sanji realized that they were limited by three things. Firstly the were fighting on their ship which meant that they had to keep their attacks small. Sanji, who used fire, could risk setting everything aflame and Zoro couldn't use his flying blades techniques, which had become such a normal part of his fighting that not being able to use it was extremely limiting. Secondly, apart from not being in a place where he could wipe out the enemy with one sure strike, as it would destroy the ship, Zoro had a certain limit due to his injuries, and a long battle was the last thing he needed. Lastly they had to protect their captain. There had yet been any indication that their enemies knew who they were, which was relatively weird, nor that they knew that they had a sick crew mate aboard, but if they were to find out, it would be mere child's play to take him hostage.

And then things took a turn for the worse. Someone with a considerable amount of strength and a devil fruit to top it off boarded the ship and was now facing Zoro, who looked like he was in a whole bunch of pain. The remaining thirty or so people then surrounded Sanji and Chopper to make sure that they could not assist the swordsman in any way. The people around them knew that they were no match for Sanji, and therefore they decided to not attack him. Instead they wait for him and Chopper to charge, so that they could counter them, which Sanji did not like. The enemies plan was simple and foreboding. They were going to take Zoro out first and when he had been dealt with, they could focus on Sanji and Chopper with a devil fruit user by their side. Under normal circumstances Sanji would have trusted Zoro to deal with the guy, but the blood dripping from his reopened wounds made Sanji worry more than he had ever worried about Zoro, and he tried desperately to break free from the people surrounding them, but there were just too many and Sanji watched as Zoro fought the devil fruit user.

The devil fruit was quickly determined, a zoan type; the Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Tiger. The enemy was fast and deadly, and he seemed experienced against swordsmen, but probably not against a three-sword user. Sanji knew that Zoro understood his position, but that did not stop him from acting recklessly, or perhaps that was what made him act like he did, because Zoro decided that a fast victory was the best way to go. When Zoro suddenly grew two extra heads and arms, and his swords went from three to nine, it was safe to say that Sanji was shocked, because what the hell even was that technique? Whatever it was it got the job done, and in the surprise that had stunned their enemies, Chopper quickly made it to Zoro's side as he fell. At that moment Sanji knew that he was alone in the fight. Zoro was down and in need of treatment, so Sanji charged and gave Chopper an opening to get Zoro inside.

The battle was long and Sanji slowly felt as his legs got heavier with each kick, but he had to protect the crew. When Sanji was finding it hard to breathe and he still had forty enemies to deal with he decided that sails were easy to remake and set a plan in motion that would allow him to take about half of his enemies down. He slowly lured them closer to the main sail, and allowed them to get closer and closer, while he slowly jumped higher and higher into the air, by using his enemies as trampolines. When there was a great crowd gathered underneath his feet he ripped the sail from its restraints and set it on fire. He then kicked the sail downwards and enveloped as many as he could. About fifteen people caught fire and jumped in the ocean to save themselves, so now Sanji just had a little over twenty people to deal with. Amongst them were five swordsmen, and they were really beginning to get on Sanji's nerves, because with the strength he had left, they were hard to deal with. Swordsmen could usually be dealt with by being fast, but Sanji's legs were feeling like lead, so he had to come up with another way to deal with them.

Because of the length of the battle, his enemies had figured his fighting style out and the swordsmen took front lines. Sanji's slowed pace gained him a few cuts here and there, and when he had been too slow to duck he had taken a slice just above his eye. For a crucial moment the blood dripping over his eye blinded him and someone took the opportunity to punch him right in the chest and he fell back. Instinctively Sanji placed his right hand where he had been hit and assessed the damage. It hurt, but it seemed that the attack hadn't been enough to break anything, so Sanji quickly got up and continued fighting. There was an attack from his right and he turned to kick the enemy away, but not even a second later a swordsman came from behind him and while three men charged in front of him. Sanji knew that he would be too late if he tried to deal with swordsman first, so he tried to go for the men charging at him and use them as a shield. Just before his leg connected, he feared that he wouldn't make it, but luck was on his side as the swordsman was shot down. Not even ten seconds passed before the remaining swordsmen were down and with Usopp protecting him, Sanji finished taking the rest of the enemies down quickly.

After the battle Usopp came running from the jungle and he helped Sanji tie the defeated enemies up. When there was no longer any chance that they could do any harm, Usopp asked about Zoro and Sanji sent him to the Sick Bay. Usopp had been acting uncharacteristically brave through the whole ordeal with Luffy, but seeing the look on his face when he had heard that Zoro had fallen was what did it for Sanji. They couldn't continue on like this. Not when the strongest of them were falling.

Sanji took all the enemies, which he assumed were pirates after looking at their ship with the black flag, and threw them back on their own ship, where he unfurled the sails and steered the ship away from the island. The strawhats weren't people who killed in cold blood, and some of them didn't even kill at all, so Sanji just sent them safely away. They would wake up in a day or so and if they decided to come back, the strawhats would probably be gone, and if not, they would have their captain back in action.

Sanji went back to the kitchen. His injuries could wait until Chopper had treated Zoro. He didn't start cooking though, he would wait until Chopper had given him the go, so after Usopp had left with a determined look on his face, which put Sanji's mind slightly at ease, he collapsed on a chair. Now that the adrenaline was gone from his body, the pain was really starting to set in and damn it hurt. Chopper soon appeared beside him and treated him. He gave him a shot that dulled the pain, but also left Sanji's mind hazy. Chopper said something about not wanting to separate the crew, and Sanji was faintly aware of being wrapped in blanket and being placed on a makeshift bed on the floor of the Sick Bay.

When Sanji woke up there was a glass of water beside him and he drank it faster than the probably should have. Chopper was currently tending to Luffy, but went to Sanji when he saw that he had woken up.

"Don't push yourself," Chopper said as soon as Sanji sat up, "How are you feeling? Are you in pain?"

Sanji took a moment to actually register how his body was feeling before replying: "This stings a bit," he gestured to the cut above his eye, "and my body is kind of sore, but it doesn't really hurt."

Chopper nodded and reached for a small jar on the desk. He then applied the contents of the jar, some light green paste, to the wound and told Sanji to stay still for another ten minutes. So he did. He watched as Chopper applied the same paste to some of Zoro's wounds before reapplying some new bandages and he watched as he tended to Luffy who now didn't just look like he had no strength in his body but also looked like he was in pain. When the ten minutes were up, Chopper came back, washed away the paste and put some cool oil on it. Sanji was told not to touch it and just let the wound breathe, and if he did as told there would be no scar after it had healed, which was good. Sanji would have hated to have a scar on his face.

Chopper then allowed Sanji to get on with his job and he left for the kitchen. It was almost evening when Sanji started making the dinner. There was still an hour or two until nightfall and Sanji expected a few people to make it back, as some things couldn't be looked for in the dark, but he guessed that it also depended on where people were on the island. They might just camp out if they were too far away and didn't want to go around in the jungle in the middle of the night, which was quite an understandable opinion to have. Sanji would probably also have preferred to camp out, but that was mostly because he hated bugs, especially the ones with wings, and they were more active at night.

Sanji finished up a stew fairly quick. He had picked stew because in addition to being extremely nutritious, it also kept for a long time, so Sanji could feed whoever came at any given time. After he had finished it he gave Chopper a serving and helped himself to some before putting it away. During the time it had taken to cook, eat and clean, the day had turned to night and Chopper urged Sanji to sleep because of his injuries. Not seeing why he should disobey, Sanji made himself comfortable with a lot of blankets in the kitchen, where he would be close to Chopper. He didn't really want to stay in the Men's Quarters all by himself, so the wooden surface would have to do.

҉

Sanji didn't know how long he slept, he just knew that it was still night when he suddenly woke up. At first he didn't know what had woken him, because he wasn't really in pain, just a little sore from sleeping on the floor and he was still a little tired, so naturally he should have stayed asleep. He peeked into the Sick Bay where Chopper had fallen asleep over his desk and quickly made sure that everybody was okay. Except for the fact that Luffy looked like he was having an unpleasant dream, they seemed fine, so Sanji was beginning to wonder what had woken him when he heard a faint scream and he knew exactly why. He ran out of the Sick Bay, through the kitchen and out onto the deck and tried to determine where the voice had come from when he heard it again. Sanji took off as fast as he could, and ignored the pain which slowly made itself noticed in his ribs. Sanji shot through the forest and frantically looked for the source of the scream, but in the end they came to him. Brook was running with Nami on his back from something that Sanji couldn't really identify.

"What are you guys-" Sanji started, but the rest of the sentence got interrupted as a pack of giant wolves came chasing after Nami and Brook. Now he understood what they were running from.

"Get to the ship!" Sanji yelled as Brook ran past him. Sanji ran towards the wolf who lead the pack and kicked it into a tree. For a moment the wolves stopped running, but when the leader stood up, as if Sanji hadn't just attacked it, they all went for the kill. Sanji decided that getting caught up with giant wolves wasn't the safest nor best idea, so he ran as well. He kicked the wolves away whenever they got too closed, but he never engaged in battle. There was no need for him to get hurt in a fight against an enemy who couldn't do them harm when they were on the ship. At least he hoped that they couldn't do them harm on the ship.

When Sanji made it to the Sunny, Nami and Brook were safely on deck and Sanji soon joined them. They all smiled at each other as the wolves stood at the beach with seemingly no way to get to their prey. But these were giant wolves on the Grand Line, so Sanji shouldn't have been surprised when they ventured into the sea and went straight for the Sunny. Not wanting to start a second fight on the deck, especially a fight involving dangerous killing machines, Sanji decided that they should sail the ship further away from shore. Nami quickly agreed, but with the main sail down, they had to use the paddling system, which would take some time to prepare. Nami took the job of steering the ship, while Sanji and Brook defended the ship from hungry carnivores. The first wolf to climb onto the Sunny got kicked all the way back to shore by Sanji, but the second invasion wasn't that easy as four wolves climbed aboard at once.

"Can't you sing them to sleep or something?" Sanji asked Brook as he kicked another wolf away only to find that another one had gotten onto the deck.

"I'm sorry, Sanji-san. I tried, but it didn't work." Brook apologized as he stabbed a wolf on the railing in the leg, which made it loose its grip and fall down into the sea beneath it.

At this moment Chopper emerged from the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about and he let out a shocked gasp when he saw the wolves. He then closed the door behind him and quickly joined the battle in trying to get the damn wolves off of the ship. When the ship started moving away from shore, Sanji felt a wave of relief and this time, when they got a wolf away from the Sunny, a new one didn't pop up. They were still fairly close to the island, close enough to see if anyone of their missing crew mates should come to the beach, but still far enough so that they wouldn't get attacked my mainland animals.

"Is anyone injured?" Chopper asked as soon as they were out of danger.

"Nami-san has few injuries," Brook said, sounding exhausted, "She hurt her foot pretty badly."

"What?!" Sanji exclaimed, "Nami-san is hurt? How? When?" Sanji was shaking Brook at this point, but he looked oddly calm. Maybe he was just too exhausted to care. It must have been a long day.

"Well, I wasn't there for most of it, but she ran into these three pirates, who were pretty strong. In fact if it wasn't for those wolves, we probably wouldn't have gotten away."

"Because of the wolves?" Sanji tilted his head in confusion, "Weren't they trying to eat you?"

"They were, but they took out our enemy first, so all we had to do was run."

"Oh..." Sanji said, not knowing exactly how to respond. Nami got carried inside by Chopper and Sanji offered some food to Brook, who gladly accepted. Chopper had apparently just taken Nami to the kitchen, possibly to not overcrowd the Sick Bay and to not worry them about Zoro. Sanji served both Nami and Brook some stew, while Chopper tended to Nami's foot. It looked quite bad, like someone had stabbed right through it. No wonder Brook had been carrying her.

"Did you get the ingredients?" Chopper then asked and both of them handed the doctor their bags. Sanji smiled. They had two of the ingredients already. Franky and Usopp could return at any moment, and Robin knew where hers was, so all she had to do was wait until the next full moon, which was only a day away. Despite all the shit that had happened that day, they were still on track and Luffy might be healed before they knew it.

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 **Not much to say, so if you enjoyed please fave, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughts :) All your support is much appreciated.**


	6. Enemies on the Rise

**I think this one might be the shortest chapter yet... oh well. There should be some good pay off moments here, and Franky was fun to write, so I hope you enjoy it :)**

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~Enemies on the rise~

It took Franky from dawn to dusk to get to the other side of the island. He had been accompanied by Robin halfway as her destination was the volcano in the centre of the island, but it had now been five hour since their parting. As Franky reached the beach on the western side of the island, he watched as the sun went down behind the silhouette of a grand pirate ship. The ship was big enough to hold a crew exceeding a hundred men, it sails and flags were black as coal except for the symbol of a skull and crossbones, and it was completely silent. The Sunny was always a lively place, but this felt like a ghost ship in comparison. Franky didn't recognise the pirate flag. It was like a generic pirate symbol, except the eyes of the skull were shaped like tear drops. As he didn't want to start any unnecessary conflicts Franky took cover in the thick jungle and waited for the darkness of the night. As the last rays of the day shone across the shore three people exited the forest not far from where Franky was and headed for the ship. Franky wasn't close enough to hear what they were talking about, but the slurred murmurs of the newly arrived people was weirdly comforting.

Franky's job consisted of going under water to collect what Chopper had called a _Moon Drop_ _._ It was a small blue sphere which formed under water, but were invisible in the light of the sun, meaning that to find them it had to be night. Legend had it that the spheres were made from tears of the crying moon, and that they shone brightly due to absorbing its light. Franky had a hard time imagining what he was looking for, but he supposed there wasn't much else to do than to get into the water and start looking. Keeping an eye on the pirates, Franky quickly slipped into the water and began his search. It wasn't exactly the easiest thing to find transparent balls under water in almost complete darkness, but Franky supposed that he had gotten lucky. Within ten minutes of searching Franky had found a small gathering of stones and underwater weeds, and right in its centre was something that glistened. He was sure that this was the Moon Drops, but as he reached for it he spotted something to his right, something that was headed towards him at a fast speed and Franky retreated just as a shark sped through the spot where he had been only seconds ago.

The thing about sharks is that they are really misunderstood creatures. They barely ever do any harm, unless you are a bleeding blood sack, in which case they'll just have a taste and then decide that human flesh wasn't really for them. So when the shark, which was hardly fully grown, came charging back for Franky, he got suspicious, because that wasn't natural shark behaviour. Franky was a fairly good swimmer, but against creatures of the sea, he hardly stood a chance... at least in terms of speed. He could easily blast the shark away with a _coup de vent_ , but the problem lay in the pirate ship docked not even ten metres away from where he was. An attack like that would surely draw attention, so Franky had to do it the old way in hand to hand combat... or would it be hand to fin?

Either way the shark charged again, but this time Franky grabbed hold of it instead of dodging it and punched it straight between the eyes, and this was where the second problem occurred. Franky's physical power was significantly reduced under water. The shark was forced back, but not for long and charged again. Franky this time tried to punch it without stopping it first. He missed. By now Franky was beginning to feel dizzy and remembered that humans couldn't actually function without breathing every once in a while. However, Franky doubted that the shark would just let him swim to the surface and breathe, which meant that he had to finish the job fast. His blurred mind wasn't exactly helped along when the shark took a little bite of one of his butt cheeks, and he ended up letting the remaining air out of his lungs in shock. He then took the shark by its head once again, but this time forced it downwards, where he used it as a platform. He planted his feet on the shark and propelled himself upwards while the shark got forced down into the sand below. As he broke the surface he filled his lugs with some much needed air and dived back in to finish the damn shark off.

He still had not gotten the Moon Drops and for some reason the shark was hovering over them like they were its children. With new energy Franky charged downwards and hit the shark with all he had. And it somehow still wasn't enough. Franky was beginning to suspect that there was more to this situation than he had previously assumed, but right now he couldn't come up with even a speculation as his actions had only angered the shark even further. This time Franky let the shark take a bite of his metal arm and used that to sent out a small Coup de Vent, which hopefully didn't draw any attention from the pirates lurking above. He grabbed the Moon Drops, broke the water surface to breathe some more air and found himself much closer to the pirate ship than expected.

He was so close that had he swam a little further towards the shore he would have crashed into it. To keep away from the shark that was still lurking about, Franky climbed the side of the ship, but stayed out of sight of any enemies the ship may harbour. The distance, or lack of it, allowed Franky to hear what was happening on the deck of the ship and the information he got ended up being more important than he had expected.

"What happened to the Vice-Captain?" Franky heard a woman say, "Why isn't he the one giving report?"

"I'm sorry, Miss," a man answered with a slight tremble in his voice, "The Vice-Captain is not conscious at the moment."

"What do you mean? What happened?!" The woman was getting more and more furious by the second and Franky heard a few terrified outbursts.

"When we came to the other side of the island there was another ship, Miss. There weren't many of them on board and they looked rather weak, so the Vice-Captain thought that we could steal whatever treasure they might have, and..."

"And?!"

"We were defeated, Miss. We underestimated them, I'm sor-"

"Who were they?!" As she yelled something broke. Franky suspected she might just have punched something.

"It was the strawhat pirates," the man cried, "It was the Pirate Hunter who defeated the Vice-Captain, Miss."

"The Pirate Hunter wouldn't have been able to defeat all of you!"

"No, Miss, there were others, but we didn't recognize them. There was a big furry monster and a blonde guy who used kicks. At first we thought that it was Black Leg, but he didn't resemble the wanted poster at all. There was also..." The guy trailed off and that seemed to anger the woman as Franky heard the sound of a gun being fired and something explode just before she yelled at him:

"And?!"

"We were shot down, Miss, but we couldn't find the shooter. When we looked for them there was no one there!"

"And you don't suppose they could have hidden in the forest that covers the entire island?" This time she wasn't yelling, but that somehow made her even more scary. She reminded Franky a bit of Nami when it came to the attitude.

"But, Miss!" The guy protested, "They weren't shooting bullets and with the wind and the distance between the ship and the forest, those shots would have been impossible to make. We were in close combat with one of the pirates, but he only hit us. That should not be possible!" _It is for Usopp,_ Franky thought as he could easily make sense of what had happened. It had been the same on Enies Lobby after all.

"We have the advantage though," A new voice spoke, not frightened like the others, "They sent our ship off, thinking that we were going to leave the island, but thanks to the cabin boys who hadn't joined us in the fight, we just sailed to the base north of the island."

"Why not take the ship to us? The captain will not be happy with the situation" The woman asked.

"The cabin boys aren't exactly used to operate ships, so they only got it out of the strawhats reach to where they knew they would be safe."

"Okay then, we'll just have to hope that the captain doesn't kill them for being dumb and weak. We'll move first thing in the morning when the night beasts have calmed. Was there anything else?" There was a long silence until a voice coming from the island yelled:

"Miss!"

"What now?" The woman mumbled almost too quiet for Franky to hear from his position.

"The young master was injured and defeated in battle!"

"The young master was...?" The woman sounded like she was out of words, before: "What the hell?! What happened to him?!"

"We don't know! He says that he was attacked by some woman!"

"What woman?"

"She had orange hair and a tattoo!" The voice had gotten closer but he still had to yell to be heard.

"Wait..." There were some footsteps, a long silence and some more footsteps, "Is this the one?"

"Young master?" The man was no longer yelling, so he was probably on the ship now.

"Yes," a boy peeped up, "That was her..."

"That was the Cat Burglar! She is one of the strawhats!" _Go Nami!_ "This is bad. The Captain will be furious when she hears of this. If those fools who got themselves defeated weren't enough to anger her, this definitely will. The strawhats will pay for this."

"Um, Miss... How did you know it was her?"

"Vice-Captain already fought the strawhats and lost... This doesn't really help our case. We need to find a way to calm her anger..." There was a long pause, "... and I think I know just the way."

Franky would never be able to tell anyone what happened in the next five seconds, but there was an explosion and he somehow ended on the deck of the enemy ship, where he found himself surrounded. They were all around him, leaving him nowhere to run, and with him in this circle of pirates stood a woman. She had short dark hair, and tanned skin to match. She wore a dark top which revealed her metal arm, and long baggy trousers with boots. She was muscular and if Luffy hadn't had a devil fruit, Franky would have guessed that she could beat him in pure physical strength... She might even still be able to do that even with his abilities.

"If we present the Captain with the head of one of the strawhats, I'm sure she'll be pleased," the woman said and licked her lips.

"I'm sorry, sis, but I don't plan on going down today," Franky smiled, "After all, I'm feeling SUPER!"

Unfortunately, Franky didn't get to strike his pose as a kick quickly approached and he was forced to dodge. The kick was then followed by a punch with her metal arm, which Franky blocked. He followed it up with a punch of his own, but she was quick to dodge. From below him she aimed a kick at his chin, which only just missed and he pushed her away from him. She instantly closed the distance he had created, but by that time Franky had loaded a coup de vent which caught her off guard and sent her flying into the railing of the ship. Had this been a one-on-one fight, Franky might have been able to finish the fight off right then and there, but it wasn't. The men surrounding him charged at full speed, and even though they weren't as strong as her, there were just a lot of them... but nothing Franky couldn't handle. He didn't want to waste any of his remaining cola on people he could take out with punches, so even though Franky could have finished them off he opted for punching them into oblivion.

The number of men surrounding him slowly decreased, but when he was down to the last five, the girl was back up. She jumped over the men standing between her and Franky, and charged from above. Franky was about to respond, but as soon as he switched his attention to the girl, one of the men attacked to his left and swung a sword at his back. Though Franky tried to dodge it he was still hit and he felt as blood trailed along his spine. His split second hesitation was also enough for the girl to perfectly land a hit at his jaw with her metal arm, and with one fell swoop Franky was forced to the ground.

But Franky was tough and got up before they could finish him off, and directed a last coup de vent at the girl and blasted her off the ship directly into the ocean where he knew the shark would be waiting for her. He then took out the remaining scrubs and jumped of the ship and into the low waters of the beach. There was an explosion coming from the behind the ship, but Franky paid no heed to it and took of in the direction of the volcano. The pirates had said something about night beasts, and right now Robin was alone in a place which, according to Luffy, had a high animal population. Franky could only hope that Robin hadn't encountered these beasts. It wasn't that Franky didn't think that Robin couldn't defend herself, far from, he knew how strong she was, but she had planned on camping by the volcano, and who could defend themselves in their sleep?

Franky didn't make it far when his path was suddenly cut off by a wolf. And Franky knew that if there was one wolf, more would soon follow. As it happened it wasn't a pack of wolf that followed next, but the girl with the metal arm. She was drenched from top to toe, which only made sense as Franky had thrown her into the ocean, and she looked extremely furious.

"I won't let you escape," she hissed at him, "I'll present your head to my captain."

"You're unusually determined to kill me," Franky teased, knowing how well anger could cloud ones judgement, "Even more so than your crew mates. Is there perhaps a hidden motive?"

"I just don't give up as easily," she snarled and positioned herself so that Franky was caught between her and the wolf.

"Is that so?" Franky exhaled and calculated his options. If he attacked the wolf, she would get him from behind, but if he attacked her, the wolf would most likely eat his ass for dinner. He could also try to escape, but outrunning a wolf was more wishful thinking than anything else, so he had to fight... somehow.

After about three seconds of thinking, Franky concluded that the best course of action would be to attack the girl first. Even if she was using the wolf to lure him in that did not mean that the wolf was on her side and there was a chance that the animal might just go for both of them rather than just one. So Franky charged after her and she responded well. For a few moments they exchanged punches without the wolf doing much, but a howl made both of them shift their attention, and their eyes widened at the sight. The pack had arrived. At that moment they both knew that they were screwed. The wolves were slowly making their way around and soon they were completely surrounded. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they needed to cooperate to make it out of this one, so they held off their fight for now and stood back to back as the wolves closed the space between them.

The fight was chaotic and Franky didn't know what was going on half the time. All he knew was that all wolves coming towards him got sent flying with a punch and the wolves approaching from behind were dealt with by the girl. The beasts were persistent to say the least. Franky was by no means weak and his punches had true strength behind them, yet each and everyone of those monsters kept getting up after taking a direct hit. Franky could hear as the girl's breaths got more rapid as the struggle went on, and he honestly didn't know how much longer he himself could last. And there was still Robin to think about. Franky had faith though, even if he couldn't help her, she could take care of herself... probably.

"Fire..." The girl suddenly panted, and Franky's attention turned to her for a split second before another wolf lunged out for him.

"What?!" Franky yelled to be heard over the loud howling.

"If we could start a fire..." She explained almost out of breath, and Franky understood. Animals were very commonly afraid of fire, and luckily, Franky could produce fire.

"When I give the signal, you duck, princess," Franky instructed and stopped punching the wolves to wait for them to get closer.

"What do you plan-"

"Duck!" Franky roared and she quickly got down as he spat fire in a circle around them. For a moment Franky thought that it hadn't worked as the wolves all stayed where they were, but he was relieved when they slowly backed down and headed back into the deep jungle where they had come from.

As the last wolf could no longer be seen or heard the two relaxed and silently agreed that continuing their fight would be pointless. Awkward silence followed.

"Well... I better go find my crew mate. Take care," Franky said after deciding that staying would do no good and began to head for the volcano.

"Next time I'll get you!" The girl shouted after him, and he just waved at her.

"Sure, sure, good luck." With that they went their separate ways.

Franky would have run to Robin's presumed location, but to avoid any more encounters with unwanted creatures or people, he opted for a quiet power walk. That meant that it took Franky much longer to get to the volcano than he had originally anticipated, but he was there now and currently standing on the edge of the volcano's mouth looking down at the crater before him. And it was absolute chaos.

Just as Luffy had said, in the centre of the volcano was a big blue flower. It hadn't bloomed yet, but according to Chopper it would the next night, but it wasn't the flower which had Franky speechless and frozen in place. It was the animals. No matter where Franky looked there were fights. Closest to him was a fight between the giant turtles Luffy had ridden the day they had arrived and a herd of deer. Franky also spotted a different pack of wolves, as well as some foxes, badgers, eagles and enormous snakes. It was like watching a battle royal where only the strongest species would survive. Thankfully Robin was nowhere to be found, but then again, where was she? There was no way she would have gotten safely away if she had been caught in the middle of this insanity.

Franky didn't have much time to worry about Robin though. It seemed that the turtles had noticed his presence, and as they were winning the fight against the deer pack, two of them began closing in on Franky. After battling a shark in the ocean, a band of pirates, a strong girl and a pack of wolves, Franky was pretty beat and the only option he had was going all in from the beginning, and he prepared for a coup de vent. Franky waited until the turtles were close enough for him to get both of them in one go and then blast them away, but as he pressed to fire the attack Franky was reminded of the horrific truth. He was out of cola. As this was the case, the attack never fired and the turtles were now dangerously close, and just as Franky found himself out of options, something grabbed him from behind.

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 **Ending on a cliffhanger! Franky's action scenes were very fun to write :D Did you like the girl though? I'll try not to focus too much on characters that aren't strawhats, but I need them for various things, and I want them to have personality, so please let me know what you think of my OCs so far.**

 **As always, if you enjoyed reading then fave, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughts. All the support is much appreciated :D**


	7. Daybreak

**Here's another chapter. Very dialouge heavy, but I needed this to move the story forward. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it :)**

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~Daybreak~

Brook hummed quietly to himself as he walked through the jungle. He knew _what_ to look for but not _where_ to look for it, and as the newest crew mate Brook felt obligated to prove himself. Of course failure was not an option, but he wanted to get this out of the way without any incidents. He had already had to be saved by Zoro back on Thriller Bark when he could not take back his shadow by himself. It was time for Brook to do something for the crew he had sworn his second life to.

Brook was the person responsible for finding the snake which had bitten Luffy to begin with. Being only a skeleton, Brook couldn't get infected with its venom, so he had been the obvious person for the job. Brook wandered aimlessly around the jungle, and for hours nothing happened. Brook was mildly aware of the fact that he didn't actually know where he was, but it shouldn't be too hard to find his way back, so that complication could wait for later.

About an hour before dawn Brook's attention was caught by a person screaming, and as he didn't recognise the voice his first instinct was to just drop and play dead. Not long after he regretted this decision as he was extremely uncomfortable, but the people were now so close that should he move he would be found out, and a conflict was the last thing he wanted.

"What the _hell_ is this thing?!" Someone yelled, "Get it off of me!"

"Navigator-san, if you'd stop moving it'd be easier for us to help you," a woman said sounding slightly annoyed, but overall just like she was done with absolutely everything.

"Fine, fine!"

"There. No harm done."

"No harm done? I was bitten by a snake? It could be poisonous!"

"If it's poisonous then you should have nothing to worry about," the woman said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean!"

"Look, it was hardly the length of your arm. Even if it was venomous there is no way it'd affect you. Now let's get going. I'd prefer to be back at base before the sun sets."

"Don't order me around, girl! Need I remind you that I have a higher rank than you?" The people were now extremely close, and it was only a matter of time before they found Brook. Of course to them he'd just be a random dead person.

"Higher rank? As a navigator you might be useful at sea, but as long as we're here, you are beneath me. You can't fight! You know shit about this forest! What can you even do on land? Look," the girl who was now close enough for Brook to see her pointed at the skeleton, "Without me you'd end up like that. Nothing but bones!"

There were a few screams when the people noticed Brook, but the girl just shrugged it off. She was the smallest of the bunch, but she wore a black tank top that stopped just before her pierced bellybutton, and it perfectly showed her muscularly figure. Her brown hair was tied in a loose bun, and showcased the small tattoo of a jolly roger on the side of her neck. She wore white and tight trousers, as well as black boots and by her right hip she had a long slender sword.

"You!" The woman suddenly said and pointed at a guy, "Why are you still holding the damn thing? Just let it go!"

"Yes! Of course!" And then Brook saw it. In the guy's hand was a snake. A small yellow snake that glistened in the sun. There was no doubt, this was the snake which had bitten Luffy and Brook had to bring back.

Now to make a choice. Did he want to move and reveal himself or wait until they had left. If he moved he might get to the snake, but there was also a chance that a fight would break out before he got the chance to act. It wasn't just anyone who'd take it lightly when they saw a walking and talking skeleton. On the other hand, if he waited too long the snake might get too far away from him. As luck had it, the snake, when released, slithered towards Brook, and as no one was really paying attention to him, he only had to grab it.

Then someone screamed, and Brook moved his hand holding the snake into the hidden safety of some bushes.

"What now?" The woman was really reaching her breaking point here.

"The- The skeleton moved!"

"Are you an idiot?" The woman exasperated. She then took him by the neck and moved closer to Brook. They were now both extremely close to his face. "Do you see that? That's a skeleton. You know how skeletons appear? They appear when people die. Do dead people move?"

"No..." The guy whispered, trying to avoid looking at both her and Brook.

"That's right, they don't. Now let's get going, the sun is about to set."

Brook waited until he could no longer hear them before he moved. He then looked at the snake in his hand, and made sure that he had the right one, before carefully placing it in a jar. Now to find his way back.

He still had no idea where he was, but the safest option would be to not go the same way as the people from before. Therefore Brook ventured in the opposite direction, and hoped that he could find his way back before long.

As he walked, he watched as the sky above him slowly turned from blue to orange. As the sun was shining it's last rays upon the small island, he came to a small clearing. It was smaller than the one with the pond, where they had all relaxed on their first day, but it was a clearing nonetheless. Sat by a tree was a boy no older than fifteen. Judging from the way he rubbed his hand on his arm, Brook would say that he was wounded. Whether it was from fighting or something else, he couldn't tell, but the boy seemed to hold no other injuries. The weird thing about this place wasn't the injured boy though, it was the grass. It was both burned and wet. The area itself looked like it had experienced heavy rain, although everywhere around it was relatively dry, and there were spots where the grass had turned completely black. The boy seemed to not have noticed Brook, and he would have walked away quietly had it not been for the sound.

Something that reminded Brook an awful lot of wood chopping followed by a loud bang told Brook that something was going on. The scream that followed made him move as fast as he could. As he arrived at the scene he knew that if he had been just a little slower it would have been too late. Some guy was hovering over Nami with a dagger aimed straight at her heart. Brook acted quickly, drew his sword, and sliced right through the man's shoulder making him drop the knife. Noting the big guy who had been an observer until now, Brook picked up a discarded Clima Tact, now knowing why the grass had looked the way it did, and gave it to Nami.

"The fight isn't over yet, Nami-san. We still need to take down that guy." They prepared for battle.

The guy was strong, and had an endurance like Brook had never seen before. The two strawhats had both speed and wit on their side, but they would soon grow tired of jumping and running around, and neither of them seemed to have the physical strength needed to take the guy down.

In the end they were saved by a wolf who mercilessly jumped at the guy. This gave Brook the opportunity to take the injured Nami on his back, and run as fast as he could. Nami of course knew the way to the Sunny and guided Brook in the right direction, but they soon noticed that something was following them.

Brook sped up when they saw the first wolf, but they would quickly come to find out that these wolves were quicker than they were.

"Brook! Can't you sing to them?" Nami asked horrified at their situation, and Brook was glad that he always brought his violin with him.

"Nami-san, hold on tight!" He felt her grip around him fasten and he let go of her to start playing. At first it seemed to work, and the wolves slowed down before coming to a halt. Brook continued to play, and when the song was finished, he and Nami took off again. Not even five minutes later the wolves were at their heels.

"Isn't it supposed to last longer?" Nami cried and clung onto Brook.

"It is!" Brook answered, "Maybe they are immune, yohoho~"

"Not funny!" Nami smacked him lightly on the head, "Look, even if you run all the way to the Sunny, it'll still take us almost two hours to get there. We _need_ a plan to get these wolves off of our trail."

"Why don't you try attacking?" Brook suggested.

"What? All of them? I can't do that!" Nami protested.

"Well, wolves normally form packs, right?"

"Obviously," Nami gestured behind her at the wolves still running after them.

"Then there should be a leader. Just attack that one."

"Oh, I see!" Nami said calmly, before... "Wait, wouldn't that just make them angrier?!"

"Let's just try it, Nami-san. We have nothing to lose."

"Fine," she said and not long after a familiar sound of thunder striking was heard.

"Did they stop?" Brook asked, afraid to stop running.

"They did... for now. Let's just keep going!"

Brook ran for a long time, taking very few breaks and every time the wolves caught up Nami would strike the one in the lead. Then they reached the pond and the wolves caught up to them again.

"Why are they so persistent!" Nami cried and let out a very high pitched scream when a wolf suddenly appeared in front of them. Brook was quick to act, and cut the wolf down where it stood and made a last sprint towards the Sunny. However the wolves were closing in on them with rapid speed, and Brook feared that they would have to stop and fight. But they were saved. Running towards them was Sanji, and as soon as he noticed the wolves, he kicked the ones nearest them away. With Sanji protecting them, they safely made it to the ship. Or so they thought.

It turned out that these wolves weren't afraid of the low waters, and they were forced to sail further away from shore. Thankfully once a safe distance was made the wolves gave up and ventured back into the jungle.

Brook was completely exhausted, but directed Chopper to go help Nami who was actually injured. He could always sleep his discomfort away. The four of them gathered in the kitchen where both he and Nami gave Chopper the ingredients that they had gathered. Brook then excused himself and went to bed. Sleep came quickly.

҉

When Brook woke up he was alone in the Men's Quarters and he decided to go to the kitchen where he knew he'd find Sanji. Whether it was good timing or Sanji's super senses Brook didn't know, but when he entered Sanji had a cup of freshly brewed tea waiting for him.

"Did you sleep well?" Sanji asked when Brook had taken a seat by the counter.

"Yes, I slept quite well, and you?" He took a sip of the tea. How he loved Sanji's tea.

Sanji didn't answer for awhile, but then he just said: "Watch duty," which Brook found strange.

"What about Zoro-san?" Brook remembered how Zoro hadn't made an appearance last night either, and he was supposed to be their so-called body guard.

Sanji turned to him, bit his lip and then gestured to the Sick Bay. "Enemies," he mumbled and went back to making breakfast.

"I suppose he hasn't healed yet?" Brook wondered out loud, remembering Zoro's sacrifice on Thriller Bark. It was a miracle that Zoro had even survived the ordeal, and Brook had hardly believed his eyes when Zoro woke up after only three days. Not that Brook actually had eyes.

"But that also means that we are now potentially dealing with three enemies," Nami's voice came from the door, and both men turned to her. She then came to sit beside Brook and Sanji gave her a cup of tea too. "We need to figure out if we're dealing with one pirate crew or multiple. If Luffy and Zoro can't fight, and we want to avoid Chopper fighting all together, then their lives depend on how well the three of us can protect them."

"Only the three of us?" Brook asked, "What about the others?"

"Robin won't be back before tomorrow. There is a chance that if Franky has sensed the danger, he would help her out, since he'd have to go past her location anyway. We don't know about Usopp, but if what Chopper tells me is true, then he set out late yesterday, and he still has two ingredients to gather. We don't know when he'll be back. We'll have to assume that there is only the three of us here if we should get attacked again."

"But how do we figure out how many enemies we're dealing with?" Sanji asked, "We don't know where they are, and even if we did, we can't just stroll up to them and ask. Besides, the guys who attacked us yesterday should be sailing away from us at the moment."

"There is no guarantee that you got all of them yesterday. We have to keep every options open, and that includes the return of the guys you took out earlier." Brook was trying his best to piece everything together, since it was clear that Nami and Sanji had talked after he had gone to bed.

"Why don't we start by trying to describe them?" Brook said, "One of the pirates I met had a tattoo of a jolly roger on her neck. Skull and crossbones, and eyes shaped as tear drops."

"That eliminates the possibility of three pirate crews," Sanji said, "The ones we fought used the same symbol."

"I don't think the ones I met had any trade marks," Nami sighed, "The only thing I could gather was that they were new recruits, but that probably means that their crew is pretty powerful."

"Why would you assume that?"

"The ones Brook and I fought were extremely strong, yet they were sent out to gather food. There is no way they would take on such a trivial task if there wasn't someone stronger giving them orders."

"That's not comforting," Brook said, almost too himself.

"Why?" Sanji asked and looked at him, "Were they really that strong?"

"Well, I didn't really fight two of them, but the one I did fight had an endurance like nothing I've ever seen before, and I've lived for quite a long time. If he is not one of their top fighters, then I just hope that we don't meet them again."

"Let's talk about the people who we think posses the biggest threat," Nami suggested and they began exchanging information. Sanji told them about a guy who had been defeated by Zoro, but had a Tiger Devil Fruit. Although they all doubted that he would return after taking a powerful attack from Zoro head on, Nami kept reminding them to not rule anything out.

Nami told them about the three guys she had fought. The weak boy with a Porcelain Devil Fruit, who Brook assumed was the boy he'd passed by just before reaching Nami. She told them of the guy who was probably a sharpshooter, but had still shown a considerable amount of strength when Nami had taken away his weapons. And she spoke about the mountain of an enemy who had been taken out by the wolf.

Brook then told them about his encounter with the girl and the navigator, and told them that they should probably watch out for the girl with the tattoo.

"Hold on," Nami interrupted suddenly and they both looked at her, "You said that he was bitten by a snake, right?"

"Yes," Brook confirmed.

"The same snake which bit Luffy and made him ill."

"Yes," Brook said once again and reached the same conclusion as her.

"That means that their navigator is currently suffering from the same thing Luffy is whether he has realized it or not."

"Well, that's one enemy less to think about," Sanji said nonchalantly.

"No," Nami said gravely, "This is bad."

They both looked intensely at her.

"No matter what kind of pirates these are, we are on the Grand Line and people don't last long here without a navigator. They'll definitely come for the antidote, and judging by the way they talked about this place, they must know it better than us. Which means..."

"Which means...?" Sanji and Brook said together.

"They'll definitely come for the flower, and, as far as we know, there is only one of them on this island."

"But..." Sanji wondered, "If we assume that both Robin-chan and Franky are by the flower, then they should be able to handle it right? They are both strong, and our enemies don't know that we are after the flower."

"I don't know about that," Nami said, and Brook was starting to get surprised by how many bad news Nami could give, "Let's assume that our enemy is smart," she began, "If the guys I met were indeed members of the same crew that you two encountered, then they can figure out that we are collecting ingredients for the antidote. The porcelain boy saw me take the fruit, and I doubt that people would just eat something that weird looking."

"Furthermore," _There's more?_ Brook thought gravely, "We still haven't met the captain, which means that there is still someone stronger than the guys we have met."

"How can you know that we haven't encountered the captain yet? He could have been the tiger dude Zoro took out," Sanji argued.

"No. I know for certain that he haven't met them, because their captain is a woman. And since the girl Brook met was supposedly of lower rank than the Navigator, it's not her. That's where our next problem occurs."

"There are more problems with this?" Brook exclaimed. Their situation was beginning to look quite bleak.

"Yes. If both Luffy and Zoro are down, then our strongest fighter is Sanji, who has the stupid weakness of not being able to fight women." Nami glared at Sanji who for the first time looked like he regretted that chivalrous side of his. Brook had yet to find out why Sanji was the way he was around women. He could understand loving them and worshipping them, Brook was the same way, but something about Sanji's attitude was off. As much as Brook adored women, he would not hesitate to fight them if need be, but from the stories he had heard, Sanji would rather die than fight a woman. Brook silently wondered if there was something more to it than met the eye.

None of them got to speak again as a loud crash was heard from the deck and their conversation was put on hold. They all stared wide eyed at each other for a moment before they hurriedly left the kitchen. Could they already be under attack? When they arrived at deck there was no one to be found, but in the middle of the grassy area there was something that resembled leaves.

"What...?" Brook heard Nami say as they got closer to examine what had landed on their ship.

Upon taking a closer look at the thing before them, they found that something that looked like a big coconut shell had presumably been wrapped in huge leaves, then tied together with some vines and lastly shot towards them. Sanji was the one to figure out what it actually was, and found that on one of the leaves, there was some sort of message. They all huddled close to read it, but apparently it was all in code.

 _W: Ship, N: Base, F: R & F, N: X, D: O_

"What does it mean?" Brook wondered out loud.

"Hmm, they probably didn't have more space, and were making sure that enemies wouldn't understand it."

"They?" Sanji asked, and Nami clarified.

"R & F. It has to be Robin and Franky, which means that they are together, safe and probably on the volcano."

"Okay, but what about the rest?"

"I think the two first are locations," Nami said, "On the West coast there is a ship and in the North there is a base."

"The F before Franky and Robin must be for the flower, right?" Sanji said, and Nami nodded. They all turned their attention back to the messages trying to figure the two last codes out. But in the end none of them could come up with a good answer.

"What are you guys doing," They suddenly heard Chopper's voice say and they all turned to the little reindeer who was standing by the kitchen door. He looked very sleepy, like he had just woken up, probably because of the crash.

"We got a message from Robin-san and Franky-san," Brook answered and Chopper looked at them, and then behind them for some reason.

"How did you get the message?" Chopper asked slowly.

"They must have shot it towards us using this," Sanji said and pointed to the mess of vines and leaves at his feet.

"Then," Chopper said and again stared at something behind them, "What's up with that deer?"

"What deeeee~r!" Brook exclaimed as he turned around and found himself face to face with a deer. Apparently Nami had had the same reaction and had fallen back in shock.

The deer was big. It stood as tall as Brook, even taller with its antlers, though it seemed that it had been injured not too long ago. Pieces of its antlers were missing, it had a scar that was probably closer to being a wound on its side, and when it moved a little closer to Brook its walk made it apparent that it had an injured leg. But aside from the strangeness that was the massive deer that had somehow made it to deck without any of them realizing, there was something far more grave about this situation. In its mouth the deer was holding two things. A bag and and some goggles that had a striking resemblance to the ones Usopp always wore.

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 **What has happened to our favorite sniper? How will the strawhats get out of this situation? All to be revealed at some point ;)**

 **As always, fave if you enjoyed reading, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughts.**


	8. Battle Royal

**I truly apologize for not uploading last week, but I have made the best of my break, and I'm now ahead again, so it probably won't happen a second time.**

 **Either way, enjoy the chapter :)**

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~Battle royal~

Robin had never seen a flower such as the one which was in the centre of the volcano. It truly was something else. The best word Robin could find to describe it was _glamorous_. Its navy blue colour was soothing and enchanting, the pellets looked like the softest thing Robin had ever come across, and as the sun went down and the moon appeared it started to glisten as if small diamonds were covering it and reflected the moon light. However, with the setting of the sun and the rising of the moon Robin noticed that the once peaceful animals around her started to move around and, as the sun shone its last rays across the island, a deafening sound was released all around her. It sounded like the animals were screaming and crying in agony, and Robin knew she had to get out of the mouth of the volcano as fast as she could.

She ran away from the centre and let her wings take her up to the edge, where she took a look back at where she had been only seconds ago. It was a bloodbath. The animals who had previously lived together in harmony were now out to kill, and Robin knew that she couldn't get caught up in it. Her first thought was to go to the foot of the volcano, but as she heard the sound of ferocious wolves, she decided against it. The jungle was just as dangerous as the volcano. Then what should she do? If she stayed at the edge, she was bound to become a target at some point. If not of the beasts by her feet, then by the unusually large birds who were flying her way.

Robin took a look around and found that not long from where she was, the edge had an opening. She immediately started to make her way there, but a screech stole her attention, and as she turned an eagle with claws as big as a person came right for her. Robin acted fast, activated her power, and grabbed hold of the eagle's wings. No longer able to fly, the eagle crashed down and slid down the side of the volcano and Robin made it to the opening.

It wasn't big. There was a hole that could fit two, maybe three people, but it was good enough for Robin. Using her powers once again, she gathered some leaves and branches, which she used to close the entrance. When she was well hidden away, she relaxed. But Robin was a curious woman, and only hearing the animals go at it could not satisfy her, so she used her powers to keep an eye on everything.

Robin noticed how it wasn't only the animals which were targets of this purge. It was also the plants growing around them. Everything had been completely torn to shreds, but the flower still stood untouched.

She sat like this for a while, merely observing the turmoil before her, when one particular group of animals caught her attention. It was the giant turtles which Luffy had befriended on their first day, and for some reason, they were now moving towards the edge of the volcano. As Robin got a closer look at what was going on with the turtles, she gasped quietly. She then concentrated all her energy into her power and desperately made it reach all the way to her completely screwed crew mate. As she could feel her hands having met its target, Robin pulled him backwards, and sent him tumbling down the side of the volcano. He moved a little faster than what she had wanted for him to do, but she managed to grab hold of him, and flung him closer to her location. She was sure that he'd get some bruises this way, but he'd probably prefer being wounded than dead.

Apparently Robin had succeeded in confusing the turtles, and they were no longer moving towards Franky, who she was rather mercilessly throwing around. When the turtles finally began to move and go rejoin the battle royal in the volcano's mouth, Robin let Franky go behind some bushes, where no one would find him... hopefully. She then tried to show him, where she was currently sitting, but at this point he was so far away from her, that it was getting hard to use her power properly. She could only hope that he got the message, and that he didn't expose their hiding spot.

Not too long after, Franky slipped through the leaves and smiled reassuringly at her. He had some scratches here and there, but nothing too serious. She smiled back, and rested upon the stony walls surrounding them. She was still keeping an eye on everything, making sure no one had followed Franky. The cyborg himself seemed extremely exhausted, but just before going to sleep he took some of Robin's discarded leaves and made some make shift beds. He then went out as a light, and Robin was beginning to suspect that something had happened before he had come to her. Granted, he had been walking through the forest, and from what Robin could see, every single animal on the face of the island were affected by the setting of the sun.

Robin was a true night owl and could be awake for longer than many of her crew mates. Yet with an early start and a taxing day of exploring, running about and having used her powers the entire night, Robin grew tired a few hours before the sun rose once again.

In her dreams Robin was walking amongst the fighting animals. Like a ghost she slipped through the fights and made her way to the flower in the centre of the volcano. There was something about the flower, which Robin couldn't quite explain. It was like its presence alone enhanced the ferociousness in the animals, yet Robin was as clam as still waters. She was drawn to the flower, and when she got close enough she reached for it...

"Robin," Franky's voice pulled Robin out of her quiet slumber and she opened her eyes. The cyborg was fumbling with some vines and leaves, and Robin stretched her stiff body, as her mind slowly started to wake.

She noticed that Franky had removed half of the roof, which explained where he had his materials from, but he had kept her in the shadows. Possibly to avoid waking her too early. The sun was still climbing the sky, but it was far from morning, and Robin took a peek at the centre of the volcano. She had expected to find everything in ruins, just as it had been when she had fallen asleep, but the sight surprised her. The animals were licking their wounds, yet there were no signs of deadly injuries on any of them, despite the fact that Robin was sure at least half the animal population would cease to be. The plants that had been trampled and destroyed stood in their full glory and were steadily climbing closer to the sun. There were not many things which Robin didn't understand, but this had to be one of them.

"Franky..." she whispered for no good reason. Perhaps the feeling of not talking was just as perplexing as the reality before her.

"I know," he said slowly, "I don't understand either."

"What are you doing?" Robin asked after awhile and moved closer to Franky to see what he was working on. It looked like he was wrapping a bunch of leaves around a big coconut.

"I'm making a catapult," Franky answered and attached some vines to the ball.

"... I don't think _that's_ going to do too much damage," Robin observed and seated herself so that Franky's 'catapult' was in between them.

"Hopefully it won't, I'm going to launch it at the Sunny," Franky said and Robin understood.

"What do you know?" Robin asked intrigued, and Franky told her of his adventures and encounters. It seemed that their situation was worse than first anticipated. In the end they decided to write the message in code and they prayed that someone, Sanji or Chopper, would be able to decipher it. The first two messages shouldn't be too hard to understand, and should their enemies figure them out, it wouldn't be the end of the world. It was the other messages which held importance. It was their location, and the fact that night time was dangerous.

Robin did point out that they might have come to the same conclusion, but Franky insisted that they take no risks and she added the last part of the message. When it was successfully attached to the big coconut Franky fired it using a catapult made of sturdy vines and Robin's powers. Hopefully they had calculated correctly and their crew mates would get the message.

They decided to rest until the sun would set. They would have to get to the flower when it bloomed under the full moon, and Robin suspected that the flower blooming would result in even more horror than the previous night. They took shifts to allow them both some sleep before the inevitable battle, and kept a close eye on the flower in case someone should pass by. Because they were no longer hidden away in the little opening, many animals found their way to them, and Robin took comfort in the small squirrels and birds which joined her as she stood watch. She found it hard to believe that these same animals had been trying to kill each other not long ago.

When the colour of the sky started to change Robin woke Franky and they got ready to act. They decided to not go down to the flower just yet, as it needed to bloom before Robin could get what she needed. They once again hid in the safety of some bushes and some leaves they had brought with them, and stationed themselves as close to the flower as they possibly could without endangering themselves.

The sky went from blue to orange to pink and finally to black, and as soon as the moon shone its first ray the horrid sound roared through the area once more. The animals were fighting again, and this time, as Robin was much closer, she could smell the blood slowly making itself noticed. But the animals were not the focus, they were the complication. Her target was the flower that would save her captain.

Robin looked up towards the flower and she saw as it slowly opened up. It's pellets spread out and covered almost half of the battle ground, and Robin gripped her bag tight. Now was the time. She was lifted up by Franky and, as they had decided beforehand, he flung her at the flower and, using her wings, she gracefully landed on one of its pellets. The flower was strong and didn't even give in even as she walked across it. She walked to its centre and brought out her jar to fill it with the liquid in its middle, but before she could get any something was fired at her, and she jumped backwards.

"Robin!" She faintly heard Franky's worried voice from afar, but her attention was on the two people who were standing on the edge of volcano. The one who had shot at Robin was still aiming his gun at her. He was tall with a lean build and brown hair tied in a ponytail. Beside him stood a girl who looked physically stronger than him, and she carried a sword at her hip.

"Get away from the flower, Nice Robin!" The girl shouted, and rested her hand on the tilt of her sword.

"No." Robin simply answered. They needed to do much worse if they wanted to make her retreat. Besides... it wasn't like this was a two-on-one situation.

Franky had been quick and attacked the two newcomers from behind. He aimed for the girl first and sent her flying directly into a fight between some stags and foxes. The man dodged Franky's second punch and shot him in the chest. Of course, as long as he was hit from the front, Franky was immune to bullets. This took the man aback and Franky sent him flying as well. When there was no longer any risk of them getting to Robin, she turned her attention back to the flower and filled the jar with the liquid. Now to get out in one piece.

It seemed that the animals were slowly making their way to the flower, and Robin felt trapped. The swords woman was fighting as ferociously as the animals, but with a clear mind she appeared to be stronger. Robin was not blind to the fact that the girl was slowly closing in on her. The gunner on the other hand seemed troubled, and Robin could have sworn that his right arm was injured. Not wanting to get caught between the girl and the animals, Robin made her wings and flew to Franky's location.

When she was almost there, she saw something in the corner of her eye and as a hawk charged for her, she deactivated her power and let herself fall down. She wouldn't be able to use her wings again for the next five minutes, so she started running towards the edge. However, she was soon cut of by some badgers, who were definitely not as cute as Robin wanted them to be. She then changed directions, hoping that she was faster than them, but ended up running straight into the gunner. Thankfully he was a little busy saving himself from some deer, but he still took the opportunity to fire a bullet in Robin's direction. She dodged effortlessly, but she couldn't afford to be stuck down here.

She looked towards the place where Franky had been not long ago, and found that he was no longer there. She quickly scanned the area and found him making his way to her. If they could just survive another four minutes, she could fly them out of here. As some wolves suddenly charged from behind, both Robin and the gunner dodged, and watched as the pack clashed with the horde. This gave the gunner an opportunity to fire another bullet at her, but this time she was one step ahead and she twisted his right arm. He let go of the gun, and screamed in agony as the familiar sound of bones cracking was heard. Robin then ran closer to where Franky was.

She was just a second to slow to notice the sword, and Robin fell to her knees as the blade cut her arm. The blood trailed down her arm and stained the ground beneath her, but she had no time to feel sorry for herself. As the girl launched for her once more, Robin took hold of her ankles and made her fall. In the few seconds the girl was down, Robin tore off part of her shirt and stopped the bleeding the best she could. As the girl got up, Robin got ready to restrain her, but the girl charged her sword downward and made the entire ground tremble. Robin lost her balance, and the girl got ready to swing at her. Robin rolled out of the way, but as she looked up, her view was blocked by a set of sharp teeth aimed at her throat. She quickly got up again, and as the wolf sprinted towards her, she jumped over it. She let it chase her and directed it towards the girl. Noticing this, the girl readied for another attack and send a flying blade towards the both of them.

Robin got ready to take the attack with the least amount of damage possible, when Franky pulled her out of the way. The two of them were now further from the edge than before, but if they could just survive another three minutes then it was okay.

Another gunshot was heard, but Franky had put himself between the gunner and Robin, and the opponents were determined. Robin activated her power once more and tried to restrain the girl, but a cut on one of her hands made Robin flinch and lose her grip. The girl got free and send another attack after her. This time Robin dodged, and circled around the girl, giving her no opportunities to attack from a distance. Robin then caught the attention of some eagles and as they charged for her, Robin launched for the girl again. This time, however, Robin restrained the eagles just as they were getting close to the girl, and as they lost control of their movements, they crashed all around the swords woman.

Robin let go of the eagles, and watched as they began attacking the girl, who defended herself gracefully. She had yet to lose her cool, and Robin suspected that she was planning her next move carefully. She then shot Robin a look and a smile, and sent her next attack towards Franky who had his back turned to her. Robin acted quickly and pulled Franky to the ground, but not in time for him to completely avoid the damage. His left arm got cut, and as he stumbled to his feet the gunner readied to kick him back into the ground. Robin used her powers to stop him, and while she succeeded she also found that the girl had gotten much closer.

Robin dodged yet another attack, and this time she didn't even use her powers as she forced the girl to the ground by sweeping her off of her feet with the swing of her leg. From the ground, the girl swung her sword, and while Robin didn't take any damage, she found that that was not the girl's objective. She cut open the bag, and Robin watched as the jar slowly fell to the ground. She saved it with her power, but the girl stole the jar from her and made a run for it.

Another two minutes, Robin thought, and ran after the girl. The chase didn't last long as the girl was cut off by the huge turtles, and Robin closed in on her from behind. The girl swung her sword at Robin, who jumped up, dodged the blade and used her power to grab onto the jar. Of course the girl wasn't about to let go that easily, but as Robin landed, she punched the girl in the stomach, and the shock was enough to make the girl loosen her grip. Robin retrieved the jar, and turned to run, but now they were completely surrounded by the turtles. Robin then heard a screech from a above and saw the hawks diving their way. There wasn't much time to act, so Robin charged at one of the turtles, jumped onto its shell and away from it before it could react. The hawks were still coming for her, and she used her power once again to immobilize them.

Another minute until she could use her wings again, and she had to avoid using her power altogether if she were to fly anywhere. Robin ran to where Franky was. He had already taken out the gunner and was now struggling with some foxes and badgers. Robin picked up some rubble on the ground and threw them at the foxes, taking their attention off of Franky. She waited until they were closer to her, and dragged her foot through the dry surface, causing dirt to fly everywhere and blind the foxes. She then took them out, for now, by kicking them as hard she could. Just another thirty seconds.

Robin made her way to Franky, and they now stood back to back, surrounded by foxes, badgers and the incoming hawks. The swords woman was not too far away, but Robin doubted that she would make it to them in time. The battle was intense and tiring as Robin couldn't use her powers just yet, but she only had to endure another ten seconds. She could hear Franky panting hard, and Robin was getting scared, as she had only planned on how to get out of the mouth the volcano. There was still the forest to think about, and it would take them the entire night to make it to the Sunny.

As it was about time, Robin signalled to Franky, and as he understood, he pulled her up on his back, and he attacked all the animals surrounding them at once. She secured Franky with her power and they took off.

Robin's wings dissolved just as they made it to the edge, but that was good enough. From there they ran down the side of the volcano and didn't bother to look behind them. When they were in the safe covers of the thick forest they stopped for a break. However lucky they were, there were no animals surrounding them and as the adrenaline slowly seeped out of her system, Robin began to feel her whole body aching and complaining. She collapsed against a tree and found that Franky had done the same. For some time they just sat there, catching their breaths.

"We should get going," Robin said when she heard a faint sound, and they got to their feet. They walked quietly, not wanting to draw any attention, and whenever they heard something, they hid away. They wanted to avoid fighting the best they could.

The two of them were almost by the Sunny when the first rays of sunshine broke through the treetops, and Robin smiled. There was no longer a chance of some kind of beast attacking them. But just as Robin felt relieved, their path was blocked. A girl with a metal arm stood before them, and one look at Franky told Robin all she needed to know. This girl was an enemy, no doubt.

"Hand over the ingredient and I'll let you live," the girl said confidently.

"I thought you said that next time we met, you would finish me off," Franky said, but Robin noticed that his tease sounded more serious than it usually would. Robin supposed that it meant that the girl was strong. Strong enough for Franky to be on his guard even with two of them there.

"You're right," she said, and took her stance, "You'll die no matter what."

She charged at them.

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	9. Ignorance is Bliss

**This chapter takes us quite far back in time, so don't get confused when you start reading. Also, this chapter kind of signifies the end of part one and the beginning of part two because this is chapter 9 out of 17.**

 **The chapter title also refers to a whole bunch of things, so see if you can pick up on all of it :) For now, enjoy!**

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~Ignorance is bliss~

Exploring new islands was one of Chopper's favorite things. Ever since he was little he had wanted to go out and see the world. He had wanted to see countries where it didn't snow everyday, and he wanted to see countries that didn't even know what snow was. Of course, as Chopper would come to find out after having left Drum, or as it was now called; Sakura Kingdom, he didn't do too well with heat. But he still liked Alabasta. The country had Vivi after all. However, he greatly preferred setting foot on some of the colder islands. He didn't need snow, but heatwave after heatwave was just a bit too much for him.

Arriving at a Summer Island that was just about to change from spring to summer was not exactly Chopper's preferred situation, but the excitement for a new island was still high, and Chopper could live with the heat for now. The first day was mostly fun. Luffy had an almost drowning experience, but Zoro had saved him before he'd even gotten water in his lungs, so all was well. It was the second day which started all the action.

Chopper had been accompanied by Usopp in his herb search, as he had found this island rich in medicinal plants and wonders, and who knew when they'd come across something like this again? They had been out for maybe an hour or two, when Sanji had suddenly appeared and told them that Luffy was ill. Chopper's mind had been in a state of panic the whole way back, but as soon as he entered the Sick Bay, where Luffy was lying weak with Zoro by his side, all uneasiness disappeared. He was no longer the young and slightly inexperienced reindeer. He was now a doctor with the skill to cure his captain.

Chopper never made an attempt to throw people out of the Sick Bay. There was no point after all. Chopper worked fast and efficiently, never slacking in any analysis or tests, and after dinner he called the crew to the sick bay. Usopp was the first to speak.

"How bad is it?" Chopper thought about how to best go about this.

"It's not too bad," he lied, "for now, but if we don't treat him... he'll be dead within a week."

As Chopper told them of the illness, and they slowly tried to figure out how best to go about it, the little doctor withheld information. He had told them that Luffy was in mortal danger, and that he didn't have all the ingredients to make the medicine, because that was something they could change, but... He decided to keep some things hidden. What the illness actually did to Luffy's body was something they couldn't change until they cured him, and them knowing would probably do more harm than it would do good, so Chopper said nothing.

That same night Chopper researched and was only once interrupted by Zoro who asked about the illness. Perhaps he had noticed how Chopper had actually told them nothing about it. So the doctor gave Zoro a name, and told him of its origin, yet he still didn't tell him anything. He was glad when Zoro stopped asking questions. The swordsman was definitely the last person Chopper wanted give this kind of information to.

The next morning Chopper devised a plan with Sanji. They had two objectives. The first one was obviously to gather all the ingredients in time, but the second one was just as important. They needed to keep Zoro safe. Chopper had seen it from the moment Sanji had brought him and Usopp back to the Sunny. Zoro's expression had changed, he seemed to be thinking more than usual, and Chopper knew that should the slightest threat appear before them, Zoro would try to cut it without even thinking about his own health. As the doctor he could not let that happen. Whatever Zoro had done back on Thriller Bark had messed his body up in a manner Chopper had never seen before, and he was far from healed.

As expected, Zoro protested a bit when he was told to stay on the Sunny, but Sanji dealt with it flawlessly, and that appeared to be that. As Luffy joined them, Zoro's protective instincts set in, and he appeared to have noticed that the sun mark on Luffy's wrist had grown.

"Relax," Chopper had said, almost commanded, and Zoro's shoulders seemed less tense, "The mark will grow in size until he's healed, but the mark itself is not harmful." That was another lie. The mark was most definitely harmful, but if Zoro, or anyone else for that matter, ever found out, Chopper couldn't trust that he would stay sane. Especially not if he told him why it was harmful. No, this was better kept between Chopper and Luffy when they eventually got some time alone.

The morning sun came around and people slowly left the Sunny, and soon the only people on the ship were Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Chopper. Zoro had apparently disappeared into the crow's nest after having had a conversation with Usopp, and when Sanji left to give him some food, Chopper took the opportunity to tell Luffy about his illness.

"Luffy," Chopper started and his captain looked at him with a sweet smile. For reasons Chopper didn't quite understand, Luffy seemed healthier than last night. "It's gonna get worse," he said, not wanting to keep him from the truth, "As time goes on, the pain will get worse, the fever will increase and the mark will grow."

"But the mark isn't harmful?" Luffy questioned and tilted his head. Chopper looked down feeling guilty.

"It is..." He confessed, but Luffy's smile didn't falter, "The mark will be the most painful part... Have you ever been burned?"

Luffy looked like he remembered something horrible before answering: "Yes."

"That's what it'll feel like," Chopper said and Luffy looked at the mark, "It'll feel like your skin is constantly on fire. You can't feel it now because it's small, but before long, the mark will grow rapidly. It'll be about two days before you're healed and by that time the mark will cover your whole arm..." Chopper stopped talking when he heard Sanji approach. He could have said more, but he was sure that Luffy was putting it together. The pain would be intense, and while it wouldn't do any physical damage, it could drive him to the brink of insanity. Pain was always worse when you had no way of getting rid of it.

As Sanji entered Chopper gave Luffy some more water and urged him to always drink whenever he was feeling the slightest bit thirsty. Another thing the venom did to the victim was increase body heat. It would make the victim sweat, but they wouldn't feel as warm as they normally would and that lead to easy dehydration. Of course, Chopper was keeping the sick bay very cool, but he could only do so much to easy Luffy's pain before he had the medicine.

And then another complication occurred. Luffy was finally sleeping again, and Chopper was just changing the cloth on his forehead, when the ship suddenly moved as if something had hit it. Chopper ran to deck and found that they were under attack. Zoro was the first to fall, and with the help of Sanji, Chopper got him inside. The doctor felt bad about having to leave Sanji all by himself, but unlike Zoro, Sanji didn't sustain any old injuries which could act up.

Chopper carefully placed Zoro on the bed opposite Luffy, and was immensely grateful that Luffy wasn't awake to see his first mate having fallen in battle. Chopper didn't even think twice about doing a blood transfusion, and only cleaned the wounds before starting the process. He stitched Zoro up as he had done so many times, but he couldn't help blaming himself for not being more stern with Zoro. He should never have let him fight in the first place.

Chopper was surprised when Usopp was the next person to enter the Sick Bay. At first the sniper just looked at the situation before him, but to surprise Chopper even further, Usopp just told Chopper to stop blaming himself. Before leaving the Sickbay, Usopp had a brief conversation with Luffy who must have woken up at some point, and promised to save him no matter what. Chopper was so thankful for Usopp's sudden optimism.

But as Chopper was now alone with a conscious Luffy, the strawhat captain was eyeing the swordsman, and he looked just as worried as Zoro had looked when Luffy had first fallen ill. Chopper decided not to speak. He had nothing to say, not really. Luffy could recognize battle wounds, and as oblivious as he might seem sometimes, he could always see when his friends were in prime condition and, of course, when they weren't.

Even if Sanji and Chopper had been the ones to actively act based on the state of Zoro's health, it was not uncommon for Luffy to give his first mate an extra look or two. He even stole less food from Zoro's plate during meals, even if Zoro himself hadn't noticed. Chopper knew that Zoro was too focused on the fact that Sanji was more prone to avoiding fights than ever before, and since he always let Luffy do whatever he wanted, he never noticed the small things the captain did in the shadows.

Chopper heard Luffy sigh, and turned his attention to his captain. Luffy was staring at the ceiling now. He had a hand on the sun mark, possibly trying to ease the pain which was now beginning to make itself noticed. It still wasn't too bad, according to Luffy. The mark was still small enough for Luffy to completely cover it with his hand, but Chopper knew that by the next morning that would no longer be the case.

"Not good enough..." Luffy muttered under his breath, and Chopper found himself too scared to ask what Luffy was talking about. Instead he applied some paste to the sun mark, and Luffy drifted off into a quiet sleep.

Chopper then went to the kitchen where he knew Sanji would be, and found him slumped over in a chair. His injuries weren't the worst, but it would definitely be kinder to just let Sanji sleep through the treatment. Not wanting to separate the crew, Chopper carried Sanji inside the Sick Bay.

Chopper had his hands full. If anyone had asked him how much he'd be doing just this morning, Chopper would have expected most of his time being spent on waiting. But now Luffy was ill, Zoro was battling death, and Sanji was injured and overworked. Chopper really wanted someone to come back. He didn't need help, he just needed company.

In the middle of the night his wish came true. Though Nami and Brook _did_ arrive with a pack of bloodthirsty wolves chasing them, so there was that complication to deal with. It was strange though. These animals were hardly conscious. It was like they were in a state of distress, which Chopper couldn't understand where came from, and he couldn't even communicate with them. They just screamed. It was saddening and puzzling at the same time.

They ended up moving the Sunny to get away from the wolves, and Chopper immediately tended to a wounded Nami. He didn't show his concern, because Nami kept insisting that it wasn't too bad, but Chopper was definitely worried. It was normal for them to get hurt and Chopper had on many occasions tended to all of them in the span of one day, but... That would always be after some super incredible battle that normally only occurred in heroic tales. But this. An illness and some fights against some mediocre pirate crew who should not have posed even the slightest threat to them. This was something which concerned Chopper. Were they this bad off if Luffy fell? Moreover, Chopper didn't like Luffy's new techniques. They had bad drawbacks, but if the enemies continuously got stronger then Luffy would have to keep using them. No. Chopper definitely didn't like this.

Thankfully, though Nami and Brook had had their fair share of troubles, they had both collected the ingredients they had been tasked with.

Brook went to bed not long after and Chopper followed suit. He was so tired and after having checked up on Luffy and Zoro one last time, he let sleep envelop him once more.

Chopper awoke to the sound of a crash and he was instantly alert. Another attack? He stumbled out of the door, ran through the kitchen and set his eyes on the deck. Apparently there was no danger, and he found Nami, Sanji and Brook on deck examining something. As there was nothing to be afraid of Chopper felt sleepiness come back to him again, but he didn't just want to go back to his bed.

He was confused though. Why was there a deer on the deck? And what was it holding in its mouth?

"What are you guys doing?" Chopper asked, wanting to get some information about the situation.

"We got a message from Robin-san and Franky-san," Brook answered, and Chopper looked at the deer. Had they used the deer to deliver a message?

"How did you get the message?" Chopper pressed, because the broken mess of leaves and stuff was also a concern.

"They must have shot it towards us using this," Sanji answered and gestured to the pile. So it probably wasn't the deer.

"Then... What's up with that deer," Chopper pointed to it, and saw as they were all shocked when they found out that there was a deer on deck.

And this is when the next complication came into play. The deer was no doubt holding Usopp's belongings. It was his bag and his goggles. The four of them rummaged through his bag, but found only the things he had brought with him to begin with as well as the herbs which Chopper needed for the medicine. Brook suggested that he might just have used the deer to deliver them the ingredients faster, but Sanji pointed out a big flaw in that logic. Usopp's bag contained his weapons as well, and why would he ever walk around a scary jungle without anything to protect himself with?

Chopper decided that speculating was useless and this deer looked more sane than the wolves from last night so he just asked. He almost wished he hadn't. Long story short, Usopp had been taken by the very pirates who were still somewhere on the island. Apparently they had a base set up in the north, just like Robin and Franky had told them, and Usopp had been taken there, but not before he had had the chance to send the deer to the Sunny with the ingredients needed for Luffy's medicine.

The four of them just stared at each other for a while, and Chopper ended up closing his eyes for a moment. He just wanted this ordeal to be over with. How would they rescue Usopp? They had two downed crew mates, two injured crew mates (one of which was also severely sleep deprived), a skeleton and a doctor reindeer. All the odds were against them. And then someone screamed.

Chopper's eyes snapped open as he turned to look towards the Sick Bay. And then Luffy screamed again and Chopper ran to him, quickly ordering the others to stay put. He rushed to Luffy's side and found his captain writhing in pain, trying to scratch the mark off of his arm, leaving nothing but bleeding red wounds. The always strong Captain was crying and screaming, and Chopper did his best to ease his pain. He gave him sedatives strong enough to put him asleep and he covered the mark, which was now the size of Luffy's forearm, with his home made paste. Luffy eventually calmed down, but he was still in pain, and Chopper had to restrain his arms to keep him from scratching his skin off.

Luffy's screams had woken Zoro up, and now Chopper was faced with another horrible situation. He had to explain to Zoro why his Captain was in so much pain that he was screaming and crying. He didn't want to. He didn't want to admit that he had lied, and he didn't want to worry Zoro by telling him that it would get worse than this. After all, there was still a day until Luffy could be healed.

"Please don't," Chopper decided to plead and he could see Zoro's dissatisfaction clearer than his wounds, "You can't help him." Chopper presented him with the hard truth and Zoro made a face Chopper had never seen him make before. He looked weak, pained and, more shockingly, he looked sad. He wasn't about to cry, but somehow Chopper would have preferred if he had.

Chopper decided to not leave the Sick Bay again. Not unless something grave happened. He dared not leave Luffy alone. There was no telling when he'd wake up and have another fit. As it happened, when Luffy woke up the next time, he was in less pain. The sun had been down for almost an hour, and though Luffy looked like he was as far from comfortable as he could be, at least he wasn't screaming.

"Chopper..." Luffy breathed weakly and Chopper was instantly by his side.

"What do you need," the little doctor asked softly, trying to stay composed.

"How many are on the ship?" Chopper couldn't make sense of the question, nor his captain's expression.

"The three of us and Nami..." Chopper said slowly. Though he didn't know the details, Sanji and Brook had left at some point to rescue Usopp.

"Sanji?" Luffy asked again, and Chopper didn't want to bring Usopp's situation into this. His captain was already suffering with his illness and first mate severely injured. He didn't need to know that his best friend had been captured by pirates who were far from their friends.

"He went to help Usopp," Chopper said as it was technically true. Sanji was helping Usopp escape... or something like that.

Luffy closed his eyes. Chopper didn't know whether it was because he was in pain or because he was thinking.

"Chopper..." Luffy said again, and the doctor sensed the shift in tone. Right now he wasn't talking to his friend Luffy, nor his patient. No, he was talking to the captain of the strawhat pirates.

"Yes?"

"What do you think of our situation?" Luffy asked without looking at him.

"I don't like it," Chopper answered truthfully. It was like Luffy was the only one he could be truthful to...

"Why?" Luffy pressed, and Chopper was slightly confused. Wasn't it obvious? They were falling apart! They were weak and broken! Everything before them should have been easily dealt with, yet for some reason every time they seemed to overcome one problem, two more appeared. It was illogical. It was something that shouldn't have happened. Something no one wanted to happen... And then Chopper understood. He understood something he should have understood long ago. Something he had been lying to himself about, because he had wanted to remain blissfully ignorant. He had wanted to spare himself from the horrible truth that just waited to be exposed.

"We're not ready..." Chopper looked at the ground. It was as simple as that. Chopper knew it, Luffy knew it, Zoro probably knew it too.

"So tell me," Luffy continued, sounding weirdly calm, "Where is Sanji?"

Chopper gritted his teeth. He had to tell him: "Usopp got captured. Sanji and Brook went to rescue him."

Luffy's eyes widened, and had it not been for the restraints, he would have shot up from his position on the bed. With the mention of Usopp in danger, Luffy had gone from captain to worried best friend in less than a second.

"Easy," Chopper tried to calm Luffy, but his captain's eyes were watering now, and he started crying silently.

"Why..." He whispered under his breath. Chopper knew he wasn't asking him, so he didn't respond. He just hugged his captain as he let out his sorrows.

At some point Chopper must have fallen asleep, because he suddenly woke up to the morning sun shining through the small window in the door opposite the kitchen entrance. Luffy was sleeping as well, but this time Zoro was awake. He was awake and sitting up, looking at Chopper silently. Chopper slowly made his way to the swordsman and did some check ups. They exchanged no words.

Zoro's wounds weren't as terrible as they had been when he'd woken up at Thriller Bark, but that didn't mean that it wasn't bad. If he moved too much he could still reopen the wounds and he was sure that just moving in general would be painful. Chopper suspected that the only reason Zoro hadn't actually moved yet was because Luffy was in this room.

After Chopper had reapplied the bandages, he told Zoro not to move and tell him whenever he was in pain. It was the same old song, but Chopper needed to say it. He felt guilty enough as it was, and giving doctor's orders was kind of relieving. It was like he was actually doing something. And then Nami walked in.

"I made breakfast," she said and looked at her crew mates. She had a single plate of food in her hands, and she gave it to Zoro, "I promised Sanji-kun that you would eat all of it, so you better do it." Zoro looked mildly annoyed, but started eating anyway.

Nami then lifted Chopper up and carried him out of the Sick Bay. He wanted to protest, but he knew exactly what she was doing. She was saving him from himself. He'd been in the Sick Bay for almost a whole day and it was getting to him, because there wasn't actually much that he could do. Nami sat him down by the table, gave him some food and ordered him to eat. He obeyed, but glanced to the Sick Bay.

"Zoro will let us know if anything happens," Nami reassured him and Chopper forced himself to smile at her. She looked tired. She must have been on watch last night, since there was no one else. And then Chopper remembered something. Something good.

"Robin should have gotten the flower by now," he said slowly. He dared not think about what would happen should Robin have failed.

"Yes," Nami smiled tiredly and took a sip of the coffee she had made for herself, "She could be back any minute."

They were silent while Chopper ate the rest of his food. Nami wasn't really doing anything. It seemed that she sometimes just zoned out, and came back to reality just to take a sip of her coffee. It was nice though. Even though it was just the two of them sitting together, exhausted in both mind and body, it was like they had created an illusion of peace. Even after Chopper had finished his breakfast, he decided to stay for a little while. He wanted the whole thing to be over and done with, and this atmosphere almost made it seem like that was the case. Almost... The empty seats and the lack of laughter was a painful reminder of the truth that was Usopp's captivity, Zoro's injuries and Luffy's illness.

And while Chopper was wishing to whatever God may exist that this was all over soon, it got worse. There was a sound from deck and this time it certainly wasn't Robin and Franky just wanting to communicate with them. They both ran outside and looked towards the beach. They had company.

There were around fifty people on the beach, perhaps more, but that didn't matter. Chopper and Nami were extremely outnumbered, and it wasn't just the number of enemies that was worrying. It was the fact that they had catapults with them as well. The Sunny had already taken a direct hit, but since the first shot, they hadn't fired. They had probably just wanted to get their attention.

The group of pirates were all standing behind a woman. She was tall and had long black hair which flowed gracefully in the wind. She bore no weapons nor any armour, yet it was clear that she was not only the strongest of them here. She was also their leader. She wore heeled sandals, much like the ones Nami liked to wear, shorts that went down to her knees, yet not covering them and tight shirt with sleeves. All of her clothes was white, except for the coat hanging on her shoulders, which was black as the night. Her skin was slightly tanned, she had a long face and big eyes. Through human eyes she was probably quite beautiful, and on her lips she wore a deep red lipstick and a cunning smile.

"If you surrender now, we'll let you live," she told them. Though she was far away she wasn't yelling, but the force in her voice was enough for her offer to reach them, and Chopper watched Nami's fist clench from the corner of his eye.

"You expect us to believe that?!" Nami shouted and the pirate captain shot them a cunning glance.

"Well," She said nonchalantly, and closed her eyes for a second, before opening one eye to look at them, "I'll let everyone but _you_ live," Nami took a step back in horror, "You had the nerve to injure my beloved son after all."

Nami gasped horrified, and Chopper could see as she tried to stop herself from shaking.

"Such a shame too," The captain said and licked her lips, "You're such a pretty little thing. I would have loved to devour you."

Chopper didn't know what to do. If they tried to fight they would lose, but if they didn't fight Nami was surely going to die, and even if they kept their word and didn't kill he rest of them, Chopper was sure it'd be much worse. They could run, but where to? They couldn't enter the island, and if they tried to sail away, they undoubtedly get fired down before they even got to turn their ship away.

Chopper felt his breathing quicken and there were tears forming in his eyes. What could they do? How could they make sure everyone would survive? There was no way out of this. No way for them to fight through this by themselves. It was Nami and Chopper against all these people.

 _Help!_ Was all Chopper could think at the moment. _Help!_ He didn't know who he wanted to help them. Robin and Franky who should have been back by now? Sanji and Brook who were trying to save Usopp? Usopp who had been captured? Zoro who wasn't even strong enough to stand? Luffy who was in so much pain that he was more likely to hurt himself than anyone else? Nami who was just as scared as him? His inner courage which he had yet to find or maybe... Chopper checked his pocket. One. Two. Three rumble balls. He could do it. If he charged at the beach and swallowed them all at once. The waters separating the Sunny and the beach would keep Nami and the others safe. He would only hurt their enemies. It was risky. It wouldn't last for long, but it was their best shot.

"Nami..." Chopper said, and she looked at him. The tears in her eyes threatening to fall at any moment now, "I have a plan... You won't like it."

She looked worriedly at him, and slowly seemed to understand what he was saying.

"No! There has to be another way!" She screamed, but Chopper looked sadly at her. They both knew there was no other option if they wanted everyone to survive.

Chopper took the first rumble ball and transformed into his jumping point. With one last look at Nami he jumped towards the crowd of pirates, and they looked ready to fight. He landed close to one of the catapults and decided to take them out first. If they couldn't attack the Sunny, maybe Nami could get away safely. He transformed into his strong point and destroyed as many catapults as he possibly could before he was inevitably surrounded. He wanted to get to the last one before he took the remaining rumble balls, but then there was a clash of thunder and Chopper smiled slightly. Nami had gotten it first.

Chopper prepared himself for what was to come, and took the last two pills. The last thing he saw was the smirk on the pirate captain's red lips.

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 **I think I answered many questions in this chapter but there are still so many things I have yet to reveal! Anyway, if you liked it then please fave, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughts :)**


	10. The Heart of the Enemy

**So... It's been almost a month, which definitely wasn't planned, but basically since I had only planned the overall story for the second half, planning out the details took much longer than anticipated and on top of work and my stupid surprise illness, this chapter was delayed a lot despite it having been 95% finished for almost two weeks...**

 **Anyways, since I'm still not done plotting out the remaining chapters completely, I'll probably bump the updates down to every other week, and I'll also change the day from Friday to Sunday. Hopefully this should prevent any other delays.**

 **Anyways, on with the chapter!**

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 _~The heart of the enemy~_

Usopp was running. He was running as fast as he could. The forest was weird. Not too long ago it had been peaceful and quiet, but as soon as the sun had set the animals had gone berserk. So far Usopp had only encountered slow animals which he could easily outrun, but he feared the worst. This forest contained a vast amount of animals, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to outrun wolves and foxes. More than anything Usopp wanted to climb a tree and hide there, but even they provided no safety. Monkeys, sloths and other wild beasts were occupying the treetops, so Usopp was just waiting for a miracle.

Upon reaching a big clearing, Usopp was sure he had encountered the exact opposite of a miracle. Before him was what he could only describe as a big enemy camp. There were unfamiliar pirates everywhere, and they were looking at Usopp like he was fresh meat and they hadn't eaten for a week. Usopp immediately turned tail and ran back into forest with no destination in mind. He had the herbs for Luffy's medicine, but he was horribly lost and hunted by pirates and animals alike. And that was when Usopp encountered a herd of deer. He could still hear the pirates behind him, but they weren't close enough to see where he was. Not that that was a good thing, because these deer looked as murderous as the pirates and Usopp would have preferred if the deer started fighting the pirates.

Of course he gained the unwanted attention of the deer, and before he could change directions and just run far, far away, the biggest deer launched for him. Usopp closed his eyes, but the impact never occurred, though he was pretty sure he heard the deer collide with something. Usopp slowly opened his eyes to find that another deer, albeit a bit smaller than the one who had tried to attack Usopp, was protecting him. The deer was slightly injured, and had pieces of its antlers missing, and Usopp immediately knew that this was the same deer he had helped that very morning. The enemy deer took a step back and shook its head in frustration. The deer who was helping Usopp stood protectively in front of him, but Usopp knew that he couldn't win the fight and he had other priorities.

Usopp ran to the side of the deer and started tying his bag to the deer. He then took a piece of cloth which hopefully had Chopper's scent all over it and let the deer sniff it. He gave the deer his goggles as well to let the crew know that he had sent it.

"Run," Usopp urged as he heard the pirates almost having reached them, "Run," Usopp yelled and pushed the deer away from the pirates. With a last look the deer set off, and disappeared into the jungle.

Now Usopp was stuck between the herd of deer and the enemy pirates, and he needed to decide what to do quickly. Although he knew absolutely nothing about the pirates, he figured that they would be easier to reason with and when the fight broke out, Usopp sided with them. Running away was not really an option, and if he could get on these guys' good side that would work out perfectly. It didn't go that well.

When the deer had been dealt with and they retreated into the deep jungle, Usopp was bound, gagged, and dragged to their camp. Usopp was slightly grateful that they didn't knock him out because if these pirates turned out to be trouble, then he'd prefer to learn as much about them as possible. Usopp was taken to what he assumed was an outpost. There was a camp fire and a convenient pole to which he was strapped tightly and painfully.

Usopp didn't know if they were being stupid or overconfident, because without blinding him nor covering his ears, the pirates who had caught him started discussing what they should do with him. Usopp rolled his eyes at their decision and was surprised that no one paid attention to him. They hadn't even taken the time to search his pockets and they should count themselves lucky that he did not have a knife on him, because he could very easily have escaped that way.

Though there were well over ten people gathered around the fire, it seemed that it was mostly three people who lead the conversation. Based on the colour of the shirts, Usopp decided to refer to them as such.

"We should tell the Captain," White said and there were about two or three who nodded in agreement.

"Are you insane?" Black countered, "We don't even know who he is! You'd wake the Captain for capturing a no name pirate?"

"What if he isn't some no name pirate?" Grey suggested, though he honestly looked more interested in eating his chicken than figuring out what to do with Usopp.

"Well, why don't we just ask him?" White suggested and Black sighed, because that was seriously such a bad idea.

"Hey! Long nose!" White yelled, and Usopp seriously had to resist rolling his eyes again, "What's your name?"

"Dorry," Usopp answered, deciding to just go with the first name he thought of that didn't belong to anyone in the crew. Having a great deal of respect for giants, he chose the name of a friend.

"Do you have a bounty?" White asked again, and Black just face palmed. Something which Usopp could relate to, because Luffy did a lot of stupid things as well.

"No," Usopp answered. Technically Dorry had a bounty but that was old and these pirates were idiots.

"He seems to not be important," White concluded and Grey threw a chicken bone after him.

"There is no way he's telling the truth," he said and continued eating.

"What? Really?!" White exclaimed and at this point Usopp suspected that he must have been slightly drunk as well, because this couldn't be real.

"We should report to Kaori-san," Black suggested and this time a few more people seemed to agree.

"Did she return to base?" Grey asked and the atmosphere fell.

"We'll just wait until she does," Black insisted.

"You just want to take the glory for capturing him!" White accused, "We all know how you feel about Kaori-san!" There was laughter and teasing from the crowd.

"Yeah, we all know how you want nothing more than to get into her pants," Grey commented and Black took a step back. This was turning into the most immature conversation Usopp had been a witness to, which should say a lot.

"Fuck all of you! We all know that telling Kaori-san is the best thing to do!"

"Sure, sure." Grey continued the teasing, "I agree with you, but only because I want to see her punch you in the face again. How long were you unconscious last time? A day? A week?"

"It was only two hours!" Black defended though it didn't make him look any better. Usopp was on the girl's side though. He'd punch Black too if he ever got close enough.

"So are we telling Kaori-san or...?" White questioned and they all seemed at agree that even with Black's... affections for her, it was probably the wisest decision.

A few of the pirates yawned, while some stretched out their tired bodies, and slowly they all started leaving to go to bed. In the end Usopp was left alone with Grey, who was somehow still eating. He wasn't even particularly big, maybe a little taller than Zoro, but build a lot like him, though Usopp was sure that Zoro had him beat in pure strength.

"Are you cold?" Grey asked not looking at Usopp, but since there was no one else around, Usopp figured he was talking to him.

"No," Usopp answered truthfully. It might be night, but it was still summer on a summer island, which meant that even the nights were warm.

"Good, 'cause it'd be too much trouble if I had to move you closer to the fire."

Usopp squinted his eyes in suspicion; "Why do you care?"

"We took you prisoner without knowing who you are," he shrugged, "It'd be unfair to treat you horribly, besides," he threw a bone over his shoulder and went for another one, "If you _do_ turn out to have a bounty on your head, the marines will pay more money if you're in good health."

"So you're bounty hunters?" Usopp asked because he'd just assumed that they were pirates even without having seen their jolly roger.

"We're part-time bounty hunters," Grey explained, "We started out as pirates, but we came to realize that you get better ships and weapons if you actually pay for it, so we started capturing pirates to earn some easy money."

"That makes sense..." Usopp said quietly to himself, and then turned the conversation to a different topic, "Who's Kaori-san?"

"Division Commander," Grey replied through chewing, "Pretty strong, 'think she could give Vice-Captain a good run for his money."

Usopp was a little scared to keep asking, because so far Grey had been pretty reasonable, but in the end, Usopp was still his prisoner.

"Anyway, you should probably get some sleep, not much else for you to do really. G'night." And with that Usopp was left alone, tied to a pole staring into the flames of the abandoned camp fire. Though he didn't want to, Usopp fell asleep halfway through the night.

He was woken with the rising of the sun. As Usopp opened his eyes, he found that there was still no one around him, but in the morning light, he could see the camp a little clearer. It was a big place. There was something which looked like a mast in the distance, and with Usopp's limited knowledge of ship design, he concluded that there was about a kilometre between his position at the edge of the camp and the ship in the distance. It had to be a big ship as well, but that would make sense considering how enormous the place was. The camp was mostly made up of tents of various sizes, but there were a few watchtowers surrounding the general area. Apparently Usopp must have stumbled upon the entrance when he first found the base, because it seemed that the base was in an enclosed space. It wouldn't actually be hard to climb the wooden walls, but they would probably keep most of the animals out, and if every night turned into a murder game, then Usopp could understand why they had decided to build a wall.

People slowly began coming out of their tents, but Usopp thought that they looked a lot more like villagers getting ready for another day at the farm rather than evil pirates. They all seemed tired and fairly robotic as they waved through the camp looking for discarded clothes or a place to pee. Some people found buckets of water to dump on themselves in the hopes of waking up, but it only seemed to work for a handful of them. It was also getting quite disturbing with the amount of naked dudes going around. Usopp didn't have a problem with naked guys, but half of them looked like they didn't know what a shower was, and when Usopp could see someone scratching their balls no matter where he turned his head, it got just a little disgusting. Apparently he wasn't the only one with these thoughts.

"Have you guys never heard of a shower?!" A voice boomed and all the guys in the area stopped whatever they were doing and looked to the person yelling at them.

Usopp tried to see past the ass blocking his view and got a glance at the woman talking to them. Short black hair, tanned skin, more muscular than Luffy and a metal arm. She looked equally as beautiful as she looked dangerous.

"We're sorry, Kaori-san!" They all said in unison, and then they scattered. Hopefully to take that shower. Meanwhile, she got closer to Usopp.

As she stood in front of him, Usopp had expected for her to keep towering over him, but instead she just took a seat on the ground opposite him, and stared very intensely at his face. When she was done with that she looked him up and down, and, better late than never, started expecting his body for any weapons. When she didn't find any she resumed to her position, sitting opposite him with crossed legs and resting her head on her clenched fist.

"You're Sogeking, right?"

"Huh?" Usopp responded dumbfounded. This seemed like it was leading into a casual conversation rather than a terrifying interrogation.

"Don't even think about lying. The world only has so many long nosed snipers, and we know that the strawhats are on this island."

"So what if I am? What would you do?" Usopp said avoiding the question.

"Hmm~" Kaori-san pondered as if she hadn't decided what to do with him yet, "I guess we'd have to take you to the Captain, but right now we have bigger concerns than revenge."

"Revenge?" Usopp questioned, now relatively confused. Did they know these pirates?

"Your friend, the cat burglar, she did something pretty bad and the Captain is not about to forgive her for that, and under normal circumstances, we'd probably just kill you. However, as it turns out, you'll be more useful to us as a fail-safe hostage."

"Why?" Usopp pushed, because these people seemed very eager to keep telling him everything.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with," Kaori-san answered, clearly not as stupid as the rest of them. She'd probably only revealed what she needed to so that Usopp would feel less compelled to run away.

She then began untying the ropes that bound him to the pole: "And as a useful hostage, we'll treat you nicely," she made sure to tie his hands before dragging him along with her, "Do you want a shower?"

Usopp entered a big tent which seemed to belong to Kaori. He was allowed a shower, and when he was all cleaned up he got food, and when he was finished he was tied to a comfortable chair. The whole time Usopp had expected someone to attack him, but everything was fine. The water wasn't acid and the food hadn't been poisoned, and while he was just in a glorified prison, this wasn't too bad.

"Comfortable?" Kaori asked, she had of course been with him the entire time to make sure he didn't escape.

"I suppose," Usopp said and followed her movements as she walked from one end of the room to the other. She sat down by a table to do some paperwork, which, again, made them seem less like pirates.

They were silent for a long while as Usopp assumed that disturbing her while she was working would backfire on him. At some point she started to grow bored with the work and put down the pen. Usopp took the chance to strike up a conversation.

"So have you contacted my crew yet?" He asked and she looked at him questioning, "I mean, you can't really use me as a hostage if they don't know you have me captured. They'd need proof as well."

"As I said," Kaori began explaining, she didn't really sound annoyed, but just not interested either, "You're a fail-safe hostage. We'll only use you if plan A fails, which you should pray it does. If not, you're dead meat."

 _Great,_ Usopp thought, but pushed the negativity aside. He needed more information: "And what exactly are you trying to accomplish?"

She looked at him for a while, probably trying to figure out if it was wise to share this much information with him, "The same as you," she answered, and Usopp just stared at her, "We're gathering ingredients for the cure to the Sun Kiss."

Usopp slowly put things together: "So... in case you can't make the antidote, you're going to trade me for it?"

"Pretty much," she answered, "we have everything but the flower which blooms tonight, so you should pray that whoever you send is stronger than your cyborg friend."

"Franky?" Usopp questioned again, and almost regretted saying his name, but at this stage, what was the point?

"He was good sport, but nothing more. We sent our sniper and best swordsman to get the flower. You need to do better than him to win against those two."

Ignoring the fact that Robin was getting into a lot of trouble, Usopp wanted to get on this girl's good side, because he was slowly seeing opportunities for him to get out of captivity without having to rob Luffy of his antidote.

"Why aren't you going?" Usopp asked trying to sound the least mocking he could, because he _really_ needed this girl to like him.

"What do you mean?"

"You're the Division Commander, right? I heard you're on par with the Vice-Captain." _Whoever he is._ "Why not send you?"

She gritted her teeth. Had he stepped on a landmine? She looked more annoyed by the second, and Usopp quickly apologized for bringing up the topic.

"No," she said firmly, "You're right. She should have sent me to deal with it. Doesn't she trust my strength yet?"

Kaori got up, knocked over the chair she had been sitting on and started pacing. She looked deep in thought and now Usopp was wondering why she was _this_ upset about it. He had meant for this to turn into a flattering conversation, where they'd slowly become more friendly and he'd then propose that she let him go, and he would in return get some of the antidote for her. There was no way they'd only have enough for one person.

Without another word to Usopp she left the tent and he was left wondering what to do now. He closed his eyes and formed a plan. He needed to prepare for two scenarios. Either Robin succeeded in getting the flower in which case these pirates would use him as a hostage. The problem here was that Luffy would have to make the call and he'd always chose a crew mate over himself. Therefore Usopp needed to somehow get out of his captivity before anything happened. However, in the event that the pirates should get the flower, Usopp needed to, not only survive, but hopeful secure the flower himself. He was in the middle of their camp, and this would surely be the place they would take the flower.

Usopp opened his eyes again, and looked through the small crack in the opening of the tent. He probably had an hour left until sunset, but his fate would be determined around midnight. He could only wait... or so he thought. In the corner of his eye, Usopp spotted something, and for all the precautions Kaori had taken, she had apparently made one big mistake. Because right there, not too far from Usopp, was a knife. He couldn't reach it from where he was tied up, but the chair he was in was not secured to anything, and he slowly started rocking back and forth until he eventually fell closer to the knife. From the ground he slowly crawled closer to it, until he was close enough to the table it was lying on. He then head butted the table, heard the knife fall and claimed his prize.

The process was slow, and the sun had almost fully set when Usopp had finally managed to cut himself free. He enjoyed his freedom for a short while until he started moving. He couldn't leave the camp until it was confirmed that Robin had gotten the flower, but he didn't want to stay in this tent either, so he snuck out.

A long night awaited him.

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 **If you enjoyed reading then please fave, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughts. I tried to give you a little more insight concerning the enemy pirates since I actually have a lot of thoughts concerning many of them which I know I won't have time to fit into the story, so the least I can do is try to make them shine through in other ways :)**


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